The No Kid Hungry Alabama Campaign will provide funding to school districts to maximize the child nutrition programs and other emergency food programs to ensure children and families have access to healthy meals at school and at home.

No Kid Hungry knows that school districts play an essential role in ensuring students receive nutritious meals to learn, grow, and thrive to reach their full potential. These flexible grants will allow school districts to respond to the growing needs and emerging opportunities to provide meals and resources to kids and families.

As school districts face significant challenges maintaining and expanding meal programs in this uncertain environment, funds are intended to support school districts in having the adaptability to meet the changing needs of students and families. 

Funding is available to support school breakfast and lunch, afterschool and weekend meals, and summer meals. We can help you cover the following expenses:

  • Meal service supplies and equipment needed to implement new models for serving breakfast, lunch, and afterschool meals and snacks including: grab and go carts, insulated coolers/warmers, packaging equipment and supplies, refrigerators, and retrofitting existing equipment to meet new needs
  • Costs of hiring additional staff positions or increasing hours for existing staff to meet increased demand as a result of COVID-19 or provide additional services like meal delivery
  • Transportation costs associated with meal delivery such as refrigerated trucks or fuel
  • New costs associated with COVID-19 preparedness like no-touch point of service machines, hand washing stations, PPE equipment and cleaning supplies
  • Non-reimbursable food costs for school food pantries, backpack programs or adult meals
  • Program outreach, enrollment assistance and marketing costs (including promoting SNAP, WIC and Pandemic-EBT programs and supporting enrollment)
  • Additional expenses as needed

Communities Experiencing Inequalities: Share Our Strength is committed to addressing the systemic and structural health, social, and economic inequities that disproportionately impact communities of color. To ensure we are supporting individuals and communities most impacted by these inequalities, we will prioritize grant funds to school districts serving communities where over 50% of the population identify as Black, Latino, Native American, Asian, Hawaiian Native, or Pacific Islander. We will also prioritize funds to rural communities where schools face unique challenges in addressing hunger and communities where members experience an intersectionality of identities and environmental factors that contribute to a number of discriminations and disadvantages.

Communities Experiencing Economic Hardship: As the effects of Covid-19 continue to be felt in communities across the country, grant funds will be provided to communities experiencing extreme economic hardship. In determining economic impact, No Kid Hungry will review data points including free and reduced eligible students, child food insecurity projections, and the social vulnerability index score[1].

Ability to Serve Kids Today and in the Future: Taking into consideration equity, economic hardship, and COVID-19 impact factors, funds will be prioritized to support school districts with a strong and sustainable plan for maximizing participation in the child nutrition programs and/or leveraging other programs to combat food insecurity such as emergency food programs and student and family outreach and enrollment. Applications should address both the immediate need for supporting students and alleviating hunger and address the long-term sustainability of programming.

Communities Experiencing Inequalities: Share Our Strength is committed to addressing the systemic and structural health, social, and economic inequities that disproportionately impact communities of color. To ensure we are supporting individuals and communities most impacted by these inequalities, we will prioritize grant funds to school districts serving communities where over 50% of the population identify as Black, Latino, Native American, Asian, Hawaiian Native, or Pacific Islander. We will also prioritize funds to rural communities where schools face unique challenges in addressing hunger and communities where members experience an intersectionality of identities and environmental factors that contribute to a number of discriminations and disadvantages.

[1] https://svi.cdc.gov/

 

USE OF FUNDS:

As school districts face significant challenges maintaining and expanding meal programs in this uncertain environment and as the majority of schools re-open to full-time in-person learning, funds are intended to support school districts in having the adaptability to meet the changing needs of students and families. Grant funding is available for school districts to leverage a variety of strategies to increase meals served and support kids and families, including:

  • Ensuring maximum student participation and improving meal quality in federal nutrition programs like School Breakfast, School Lunch, Afterschool Meals and Snacks, and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, as well as offering universal breakfast and lunch (served at no cost to all students) through the Seamless Summer Option waiver or Community Eligibility Provision – Grant funding will be prioritized for school districts that are specifically implementing strategies related to improving access to school breakfast as part of their nutrition plan
  • Promoting awareness of meal availability to students and families, especially for free and reduced-price eligible students
  • Providing meals during weekends and out-of-school time through backpack programs and school pantries
  • Promoting and supporting enrollment of SNAP, WIC and Pandemic-EBT programs as well as the Child Tax Credit

EXAMPLES OF HOW FUNDS MAY BE USED:

  • Meal service supplies and equipment needed to implement new models for serving breakfast, lunch, and afterschool meals and snacks including: grab and go carts, insulated coolers/warmers, packaging equipment and supplies, refrigerators, and retrofitting existing equipment to meet new needs
  • Costs of hiring additional staff positions or increasing hours for existing staff to meet increased demand as a result of COVID-19 or provide additional services like meal delivery
  • New costs associated with COVID-19 preparedness like no-touch point of service machines, hand washing stations, PPE equipment and cleaning supplies
  • Non-reimbursable food costs for school food pantries, backpack programs or adult meals
  • Program outreach, enrollment assistance and marketing costs (including promoting SNAP, WIC and Pandemic-EBT programs and supporting enrollment)
  • Transportation costs associated with meal delivery such as refrigerated trucks or fuel
  • Additional expenses as needed

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Applicants will be required to provide the following information:

  • District Food Service Director and Superintendent contact information
  • Historic district-wide enrollment and school meals participation for breakfast, lunch, and afterschool meals and snacks from October 2020
  • Information about your current and planned food and nutrition programs for SY21-22
  • Detailed description of grant funding program objectives
  • Detailed budget of anticipated use of funding

 

TO NOTE:

Grants may be funded through corporate partners working with Share Our Strength. You will be notified upon receipt of the grant award if a corporate partner is sponsoring the grant award.

Additionally, we understand that meal service plans in SY21-22 may vary and change throughout the school year. Please submit your application with your current thinking for how your school district plans to operate meal service throughout the year and any potential emergency service plans. If you are awarded funds, you will be required to submit quarterly progress reports that accurately describe your school meals implementation and other meal programs, as well as changes in participation and meal service delivery as programming adjusts to the evolving operating environment.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

  • Log into or create an account for the No Kid Hungry Grants Portal at https://nokidhungry.force.com. Please do not use Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge when registering or working within the portal.
  • To create a new account, click “New User.”
  • After you have logged into the No Kid Hungry Grants Portal, click “Start a New Application” on the Home page.
  • Input the following access code to gain access to the application: ALSchoolNutrition2022. Click “Start Application” to begin.
  • Be sure to input all required answers and save frequently as you are inputting information.
  • Once all questions are completed, click “Review Application.”
  • Download your application as a PDF and then click “Submit.”

 

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and applicants will be notified no more than four weeks after submission date.

 Want to take a closer look at the application? CLICK HERE for a sample

 To access the application please use this ACCESS CODE: ALSchoolNutrition2022

Apply Today 

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

If you have questions about your grant application? Want the status of an application, or are you having issues logging into the portal? Please take a look at our new FAQ Grants document!

Your can also email us at grantshelpdesk@strength.org, and we’ll be able to assist you.

If you are looking for additional resources or technical assistance, please contact Eleni Towns etowns@strength.org

 

Alabama RFP- Community Nutrition