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2023 SFA Equipment Grant Recipient Forms
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UPDATED 2/10/2025
Award Amount: $1,000+
Application Period: Closed
Grant Recipients:
• The 2023 NSLP Equipment Grants (CFDA 10.579) list of awardees
• General FAQ about the 2023 Equipment Grant
IMPORTANT: Award recipients must be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM). Recipients will not be able to receive funds without an active Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) # registered with SAM. You may begin the registration process at Getting Started with Registration for SAM. This can take several weeks, so do not delay.
Notification of awards were sent via USPS to Child Nutrition Directors and Superintendents of winning School Food Authorities (SFAs). Contracting entities that did not receive an award will not receive notification.
Requests for Applications (RFA) were distributed to Superintendents and Child Nutrition Directors (CNDs) of all Contracted Entities (CEs) eligible to apply. If your CE did not receive an invitation, it was not eligible for the 2023 NLSP Equipment Assistance Grant.
** Your ESC can provide additional guidance. **
Additional questions about the NSLP Equipment Grant may be sent to NSLPEquipmentGrants@TexasAgriculture.gov.
Equipment Grant Application Process:
The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) competitively awarded kitchen equipment assistance grants to eligible School Food Authorities who were National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) participants. These kitchen equipment assistance grants are to allow SFAs to purchase nonexpendable, tangible kitchen equipment with a useful life of more than one year. The 2023 grant minimum equipment acquisition cost per item is $1,000. TDA used a competitive award process to distribute $3,745,223 provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, (Public Law 117-328) in reimbursement grants among the SFA sites that best fit USDA selection factors detailed at 2023 Equipment Grant Processing Methodology.
The application period was September 3, 2024 – October 11, 2024. All applications were submitted through the application web portal. Applications were not accepted past the deadline. TDA announced awards in December of 2024.
For the 2023 NSLP Equipment Assistance Grants selection process, eligible SFAs had to be participating in the NSLP, SBP, or SSO programs and be in good standing. Sites that had received previous NSLP Equipment Assistance Grants were ineligible. Priority was given to CEs that did not have any sites that had received an award from a previous NSLP Equipment Assistance Grants over CEs that had sites that had received previous year’s awards.
Scoring considered:
- Percentage of free and reduced/CEP – priced meals
- Access to other financial resources to acquire equipment
- Age of food service equipment being replaced
- The proposed equipment’s potential meaningful impact on nutrition and quality of meals
- Improving food safety
- Equipment that provides more convenience and appeal to the student population in highlighting healthier choices
See the scoring criteria here.
If you have any questions about the NSLP Equipment Assistance Grant, send an email to: NSLPEquipmentGrants@TexasAgriculture.gov
SFAs must follow all Federal, State, and Local procurement laws when purchasing equipment with these grant awards.
As with all Federal grant funds, procurement regulations at 7 CFR Part 210.21 and 2 CFR Part 200.317-326 apply, and equipment competitively procured using these grant funds must be necessary, reasonable, and allocable.
Though not required, SFAs awarded grant funds are encouraged to purchase equipment made domestically.