Governor Hochul Awards $10 Million Through Round Three of New York’s Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant Program

Mid-Hudson and New York City Regions Awarded in Round Three; Two Future Additional Rounds of the Program Will Reach All Regions of New York State

Program Provides Total of $50 Million Over Five Years To Help Improve School Kitchens; Facilitates Preparation of Fresh, Scratch Made Meals for Students Using New York Farm Products

State Awarded $450,000 USDA Grant To Provide Culinary Training in Schools for Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant Recipients, in Collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America, To Encourage the Use of More Locally Sourced Foods

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that $10 million has been awarded to two projects through round three of New York’s Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant Program. Projects in the Mid-Hudson and New York City regions were awarded $5 million each to improve meal preparation and distribution for Kindergarten through Grade 12 students using local agricultural products. First announced in the Governor’s 2023 State of the State, the program will provide a total of $50 million over five years to eligible applicants in all ten regions of New York State to facilitate the on-site processing and preparation of fresh, nutritious meals; increase the use of more healthy, local New York food products; and provide a boost to New York farmers. The Regional School Food Infrastructure program builds on New York’s many programs that prioritize local foods in schools, including tools to help school districts procure and purchase farm products from local producers, ensuring that New York remains New York’s first and best customer.

“Ensuring our students are eating nutritious, local food means that they will be more ready for their day of learning and playing and that our farmers have a reliable market for their products,” Governor Hochul said. “By funding this $50 million program, the State is making a critical investment in our children, reducing food insecurity, and supporting our farmers. Having just celebrated a milestone of our universal school meals program of 275 million free school meals served, the Regional School Food Infrastructure program, alongside New York’s other farm-to-school programs, is working to make sure that those meals are sourced locally and prepared from scratch. I congratulate the awardees and look forward to seeing these projects come to fruition.”

Administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant Program is providing critical funding for schools to aggregate, store, process, and prepare farm products, making it possible to cook fresh, nutritious, scratch-made meals for schoolchildren. The program also encourages workforce development by providing training to schools, communities and students for culinary arts, food processing, safe food handling and storage, logistics, delivery, and more based on community need.

The projects awarded in round three are:

• The Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES project will establish a Regional Food Processing and Workforce Development Hub. This shared-use regional food infrastructure project will address critical gaps in processing capacity, workforce readiness, and distribution that limit institutional procurement of New York State-grown and processed food in the area. Plans include the construction of a state-of-the-art food processing training facility that includes both an educational building and a shared use of a new modular kitchen, as well as a refrigerated truck to facilitate last-mile delivery of processed products to the partner schools. The modular kitchen will be equipped with a configuration of commercial-grade processing equipment to support hands-on instruction and credentialed workforce development. The educational building will provide classroom space for instruction in food safety, nutrition and local procurement practices, basic kitchen training areas for hands-on skill development and inventory management systems, as well as dry storage and standalone cold and freezer storage units to support farm participation and improve overall supply chain efficiency.
• The KIPP NYC project will fund the development of the KIPP NYC Culinary Institute, a South Bronx-based Farm-to-School hub with centralized storage and production facilities, last mile logistics and fresh meal delivery capacity, and a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen. This project will allow for a shift from case-based purchasing to palletized procurement directly from New York State producers. Beyond the immediate impact of incorporating more NYS products and more schools into its successful scratch cooking model that feeds thousands of students across NYC, the Institute will provide students and the community with multiple other benefits, including workforce development for hundreds of Career Pathway culinary students and student employees each year. Professional development for 100 KIPP NYC culinary team and hundreds of partner district staff will also be provided, including an annual summer conference and monthly workshops; space for community events, classes, farmers’ markets and a year-round food pantry supporting the highest need families in the community.

New York's successful Farm-to-School program connects schools with local farms and food producers to strengthen local agriculture, improve student health and promote regional food systems awareness. Through the program, the Department of Agriculture and Markets provides financial, technical and promotional assistance to schools, farms, distributors and other supporting organizations to bring more local, nutritious, seasonally varied meals to New York students.

The 30 Percent New York State Initiative further facilitates the provision of healthy New York sourced food products to children as part of their lunch meal in school. The initiative increases the reimbursement schools receive for lunches for any district that ensures their school lunches are made up of at least 30 percent eligible New York produced and processed products. The Department of Agriculture and Markets took the lead on the program as part of Governor Hochul’s 2022 State of the State commitment to better connect farms and schools across New York.

Since then, the program has seen increased participation from school food authorities, with a total of 82 school districts approved to receive enhanced reimbursement during this school year, up from 73 approved for reimbursement last year. In total, more than $13.5 million was spent on New York agricultural products during the 2024-2025 school year by schools applying for the incentive.”

The FY 2027 Budget builds on the work of these programs to support farmers, strengthen New York’s agricultural industry and build a more resilient food supply in New York State.