Team Nutrition Training Grants 2023 | FNS CN TN 2023

Opportunity Information: Apply for FNS CN TN 2023

Team Nutrition Training Grants 2023 is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), designed to help schools and school communities encourage healthier eating habits among children in grades Pre-K through 12 and their families. The central idea is to connect classroom and community nutrition education directly to the meals and snacks students already receive through USDA Child Nutrition Programs, using MyPlate as the core educational framework. Rather than treating nutrition education as a stand-alone message, this grant emphasizes coordination between what students learn about healthy patterns and what they actually see and eat in school meals and eligible snacks, so that consistent exposure and reinforcement can support long-term behavior change.

The grant focuses on several clear objectives tied to measurable changes in awareness, participation, and equity. First, it aims to increase students consumption of nutritious foods and beverages offered through key child nutrition programs, specifically the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) in At-Risk Afterschool Meals and Outside School Hours Care Centers (OSHCC). The mechanism for reaching this objective is high-quality MyPlate nutrition education, meaning education that is accurate, engaging, and aligned with the foods and beverages being served so students are more likely to try and choose healthier options already available to them.

A second major objective is to increase recognition and use of the MyPlate symbol and its related tools, resources, and messages. This includes not just students, but the broader network of adults who influence food choices and attitudes. The opportunity explicitly calls out parents and caregivers, school coaches and athletic trainers, school nurses, afterschool program operators, and Pre-K-12 teachers as priority audiences for improving awareness of the nutritional value of school meals and snacks. In practice, this means grantees are expected to share consistent, understandable information about what school meals contribute nutritionally, and to ensure that the MyPlate framework becomes familiar across the school community, not only in a health class lesson.

Equity is also a core element of the program. The grant seeks to improve equity by increasing the number of students reached from historically underserved and marginalized populations. It highlights the importance of culturally appropriate materials and recipes, and resources provided in the preferred languages of students and their families. This points to an expectation that grantees will tailor outreach and education so it is relevant and accessible, rather than relying on one-size-fits-all materials. The intent is to reduce gaps in who benefits from nutrition education and to ensure that communities that have been left out or under-resourced are intentionally included in program design and delivery.

Another major objective is strengthening school community engagement around the Local School Wellness Policy (LWP). The grant is intended to support schools and districts in developing, implementing, and assessing their wellness policies with meaningful input and participation from the community. Because wellness policies can shape nutrition standards, food marketing practices, school culture, and opportunities for nutrition education, this objective ties the grant to longer-term systems change. By encouraging engagement and assessment, the grant pushes beyond short-term education campaigns and toward sustained improvements in the school environment.

Administratively, the opportunity is listed under Funding Opportunity Number FNS CN TN 2023 and CFDA 10.574, and it is categorized under Agriculture, Food and Nutrition. Eligible applicants include state governments, county governments, city or township governments, and independent school districts, reflecting a focus on public-sector entities with authority and reach across school meal programs and education systems. The original posting date was March 22, 2023, with an original closing date of May 22, 2023. The award ceiling is $1,000,000, and the program anticipated making about 10 awards, indicating a competitive process with relatively substantial funding per award for applicants capable of implementing coordinated, multi-setting nutrition education efforts tied to USDA meal programs.

Overall, this grant opportunity is built to help schools increase student acceptance and consumption of nutritious school foods, normalize MyPlate-based healthy eating patterns across the school community, address equity through culturally and linguistically appropriate resources, and strengthen local wellness policy work so improvements last beyond the grant period.

• The Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service in the agriculture, food and nutrition sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Team Nutrition Training Grants 2023" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.574.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 22, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 22, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Independent school districts.

Apply for FNS CN TN 2023

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