Food and Nutrition Programs

Northeast Food for Schools Round Two Funding Opportunity

Update as of March 11, 2025

On March 7, 2025, pursuant to 2 CFR § 200.341, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), received written notification that the subject agreement between the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) and DESE for the Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement (LFSCC) will be terminated 60 days from March 7, 2025's date in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.340(a)(4) and the terms and conditions of the award. AMS has determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate.

DESE encourages all SFAs to follow the instructions outlined below by March 28, 2025, to indicate their interest in funds for local food. If alternative funding becomes available, these attestations will be used to expedite distribution of available resources.

At this time, SFA should not expect to receive additional Northeast Food for School funding for the upcoming school years and should consider adjusting their USDA Foods Entitlement Order and Commitment forms, if applicable, by contacting a member of the Food Distribution team requesting to re-open a submitted form. The deadline to adjust submitted USDA Foods Order and Commitment forms is March 12, 2025.

Northeast Food for Schools (NFS) is a federal funding opportunity made available through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Agricultural Marketing Service program entitled Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program . In Massachusetts, this program is administered by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Office for Food and Nutrition Programs (FNP) in partnership with contracted partner, Massachusetts Farm to School (MFTS). The purpose of NFS is to increase the capacity for School Food Authorities (SFAs) to procure local unprocessed or minimally processed foods for service in Child Nutrition Programs. In addition to expanding the capacity for procuring/providing local foods to schools, the program seeks to strengthen local food systems and ensure all children across the Commonwealth have access to high quality local foods at school.

Northeast Food for Schools Round One (2023-2024)
In the first round of NFS, Massachusetts was awarded $3.5 million which was administered to approximately 230 SFAs that opted into participating in the program during school year 2023-2024. SFAs purchased a variety of eligible unprocessed or minimally processed foods grown, raised or caught within 400 miles of their SFA and received reimbursement for these purchases by entering purchasing and product origin information into a claiming platform. All purchases were required to follow federal, state and local procurement regulations and were served in the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Program.

Note: the following Northeast Food for Schools program content relates to funding available to SFAs operating the National School Lunch Program only. FNP will release more details for CACFP sponsors interested in participating in the program in the coming months.

Confirm Participation (Required):
A new FY25 compliance packet component has been created in the DESE Security Portal entitled "Northeast Food for Schools Attestation." By Friday, March 28^th, all eligible SFAs should:

1. Review the following program guidelines below.
2. Confer with their procurement and financial team about the requirements of this opportunity.
3. Confirm or decline their interest in NFS participation through the new Compliance Packet component entitled "Northeast Food for Schools Attestation" in the DESE Security Portal.
4. Complete the attestation responses in the same new Compliance Packet component entitled "Northeast Food for Schools Attestation."
5. Select "Submit" at the bottom of the attestation to submit your response.

Note: This confirmation window will be the only time to opt into NFS participation for the foreseeable future for round two of NFS. No other opt-in windows are anticipated.

All SFAs should complete the Northeast Food for Schools confirmation survey in the DESE Security Portal regardless of whether or not they would like to participate in Northeast Food for Schools.

Eligibility:

• All self-prep SFAs that will operate the National School Lunch Program in SY2025-2026 are eligible to participate (regardless of their participation status in the first round of NFS)

Program Requirements:
NFS is a reimbursement-based program. As a result:

• SFAs must procure and purchase all eligible local food products following all federal, state and local procurement regulations that apply to the SFA.
• SFAs must be able to trace the farm/producer of origin and identify the city, state in which the product was produced.
• SFAs must submit reimbursement claims only for eligible NFS products by FNP designated deadlines.
• SFAs will be required to contract with and utilize a specified claiming software identified by DESE to upload relevant NFS sales reports to a claiming platform to allow for NFS product validation and reimbursement. FNP will only accept requests for reimbursement through this specified claiming software.
  • DESE anticipates that SFAs will need to pay an annual administrative licensing fee for the claiming software required for NFS claim reimbursement.
  • This annual administrative licensing fee can not be reimbursed through NFS funds - SFAs must leverage their non-profit food service account or other district funds to cover this fee.
  • DESE anticipates this annual administrative licensing fee not to exceed 10% of an SFA's total NFS award. Note: this fee amount is subject to change based on the final vendor identified through the DESE state procurement process.
• SFAs must keep all purchasing and procurement records on file in the event of a program audit.

Funding Awards:

• Final SFA awards will be determined by:
  • an SFA's school lunch participation in October 2024
  • the number of SFAs that opt into participating
• All participating SFAs will receive a minimum award of $1,000
• FNP does not anticipate capping NFS awards at a maximum value

Note: minimum and maximum award values are subject to change based on funding availability

When final award determinations have been completed, SFAs will receive a two-year award total, divided into two NFS award allocations by school year. An SFA's SY2025-26 NFS award allocation will be final and available to the SFA at the start of SY2025-26. An SFA's SY2026-27 NFS award allocation will be provisional; access to SY2026-27 funding is contingent upon a SFA's successful spend of SY2025-26 funding.

Failure of an SFA to successfully spend their SY2025-26 NFS award allocation may result in the sweep and reallocation of SY2025-26 funding and the forfeit of SY2026-27 provisional funding. FNP will release NFS spending benchmarks, anticipated timelines for funding sweeps, as well as priority eligibility for access to reallocated NFS funding in Fall 2025. Upon the release of final award determinations, an SFA may take action by contacting FNP to decline their final award allocation.

To support SFAs in making an informed decision around NFS participation, FNS is making the following NFS award level estimate calculation available to SFAs to help them determine their anticipated SY2025-26 NFS award allocation. FNP estimates that SFAs will receive an NFS assistance level of between $0.45 to $0.55 per lunch served in October 2024. Note: this NFS award level estimate calculation is based on projected participation. NFS final award values are subject to change.

Eligible Purchases:
NFS funding may reimburse the cost of:

• Unprocessed or minimally processed food grown, raised, or caught within 400 miles of the SFA, including, but not limited to fruits, vegetables, beef, fish, poultry, or dairy products.
• Standard delivery fees associated with receiving eligible food products (when not already integrated into the price of the product).

NFS funding may not be used to reimburse:

• Fluid milk purchases where the fluid milk will serve as the reimbursable component of the meal pattern (prior written approval is required from FNS to seek approval for NFS reimbursement for other uses of fluid milk).
• Foods that are processed or prepared, including but not limited to: baked goods such as breads, muffins, or crackers; prepackaged sandwiches or meals; other prepared and/or pre-cooked items that come ready-to-eat or that require no further preparation beyond heating (eg. chicken nuggets, fish sticks, meatballs with multiple ingredients, pre-made pizza crust, etc).

Purchased NFS products may be served in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program, NSLP Afterschool Snacks Program, the Summer Food Service Program and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). Note: further guidance will be released to ensure that claims made on local purchases served in FFVP through NFS are not claimed through the FFVP claiming process — duplicate claiming of food cost is unallowable.

Technical Assistance Available:

• FNP and MFTS want to ensure that SFAs have access to the support needed to maximize the benefit of their NFS funds. SFAs considering whether they may want to participate in the second round of funding should check out MFTS's Northeast Food for Schools resource page for a sense of the resources and learning opportunities available during the first round of NFS. We anticipate that the following NFS procurement-related supports will be available for NFS participants in the second round of funding:
  • Northeast Food for School Program Manual
  • OnDemand, webinar-based, and in-person trainings
  • Procurement consultation appointments with MFTS
  • FNP Office Hour peer-to-peer learning opportunities every third Tuesday of the month
  • Designated contact person for questions about product eligibility, claiming and reimbursement
  • Procurement documentation resources including a Sample Request for Quotes template and the Statewide Northeast Produce RFP for streamline procurement of fresh produce through Massachusetts food hubs

Program Roll Out Timeline:

Next Steps:
All SFAs should confirm or decline their interest in NFS participation through the Compliance Packet component entitled "Northeast Food for Schools Attestation" in the DESE Security Portal no later than Friday, March 28. Please review all NFS round two program materials, share them with your procurement and financial team and ensure you understand the requirements and benefits of NFS participation.

If you are interested in starting to develop a spending plan for your SY2025-26 NFS funds, please contact MFTS . If you have questions about the second round of NFS, please contact DESE Local Food System Specialist, Maggie Nowak .