Michigan Department of Education adds additional Northern Michigan grantees to meal program

LANSING —  The Michigan Division of Schooling lately introduced an extra 29 grantees for “10 Cents A Meal for Michigan’s Children & Farms,” after reopening the matching grant program for a second software window.

Ten Cents a Meal, Michigan’s state-funded farm to establishment grant, offers matching incentive funding as much as 10 cents per meal to buy and serve Michigan-grown fruits, greens, and legumes. 

The grant has gone from a regional pilot program in 2016 to lastly being obtainable to candidates statewide for the 2020-2021 faculty 12 months. The newest funding of $5 million {dollars} from the state affirms the significance of 10 Cents a Meal in offering recent, wholesome, native fruits, greens, and dry beans for Michigan’s kids. 

“One among my proudest accomplishments throughout my legislative tenure is the expansion of 10 Cents a Meal, particularly right here in northern Michigan and the Higher Peninsula. This program is critically-important in getting recent Michigan fruit and veggies to our college students and we now have a complete of 257 grantees throughout the state. I’m thrilled to see Cheboygan Space Faculties, Harbor Springs College District, Inland Lakes Faculties, and Brimley Space Faculties be a part of as 10 Cents a Meal grantees,” stated Sen. Wayne Schmidt (R) of Traverse Metropolis.

The grant is presently in its second 12 months of statewide availability, and there are actually 257 distinctive grantees for the 2021-22 faculty 12 months, representing greater than 585,000 kids.

In comparison with final 12 months’s 143 grantees, this system has seen a virtually 80% enhance in grant recipients in a single 12 months. 

10 Cents a Meal is open to highschool districts (public, public faculty academies, or personal), and non-school sponsors of USDA Little one Vitamin Applications comparable to residential childcare establishments (RCCIs), baby care facilities and after faculty applications collaborating within the Summer time Meals Service Program (SFSP), Nationwide College Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Little one and Grownup Care Meals Program (CACFP). 

“It’s so encouraging to see this promising development that Michigan’s youngest kids of all revenue ranges, from Detroit to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, are benefiting from the excessive dietary high quality of domestically grown meals,” stated Groundwork Heart for Resilient Communities Coverage specialist Nathan Medina.

Groundwork is a key Michigan Division of Schooling companion on the ten Cents a Meal program.

The 29 new grantees embody the next: Freeland Group College District, White Cloud Public Faculties, Every day Shepherd Little one Care Heart, Boys And Ladies Membership Benton Harbor, Harbor Springs College District, Fremont Public College District, Affiliation For Little one Growth, Ludington Space College District, Grand Rapids Metropolitan YMCA, Charlotte Public Faculties, Dee’s Little Angels Little one Care Heart, Bambi Land Little one Care, Vibrant Beginnings, Newaygo Public College District, Kids’s Paradise Studying Heart, Inc., Orchard Hill Reformed Church, Napoleon Group Faculties, Summerfield Faculties, Springport Public Faculties, Inland Lakes Faculties, Cheboygan Space Faculties, Capac Group Faculties, Kalkaska Public Faculties, Brimley Space Faculties,  Fruitport Group Faculties, Little one Star Growth Heart, A & W Day Care Heart, Steepletown Neighborhood Providers, and Village Of Shiny Stars Little one Care.

For extra details about this system, please go to the ten Cents a Meal web site at www.tencentsmichigan.org.