nourish to flourish school grant program

With a vision to support children and youth to eat nourishing food and to develop a deep understanding and appreciation for food, Sustain Ontario is working in close collaboration with Farm Boy and Farm to Cafeteria Canada to offer the nourish to flourish school grant program.

* Vous trouveriez les Directives à l’intention des candidats, la Gabarit de candidature et le formulaire en ligne en français ci-dessous. *

About the grants:

In this second call for applications, nourish to flourish will award $161,000 in one-time grants of between $1,000-$10,000 to an estimated 46 schools across Ontario to support in-school meal programs and food literacy initiatives. The aim is to award 16 grants of $1,000, 15 grants of $3,000, 10 grants of $5,000 and 5 grants of $10,000. Project activities must be implemented between September 2025 and June 2026.

Applications are due end of day June 13, 2025.

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Guidelines for Applicants  |  Application template 

Apply Now through our grant portal

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Nous avons le plaisir d’offrir aux écoles la possibilité de soumettre leur candidature en français:

Directives à l’intention des candidats  |  Gabarit de candidature

Complétez le formulaire en ligne

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Eligibility:

Applications are open to all schools (kindergarten to grade 12) across Ontario. This includes schools in rural, remote and urban settings.

Schools in Indigenous communities/nations and schools that serve a high-proportion of low-income, racialized or other equity-deserving communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

The selection process is to fund schools across the province, but will look to select a greater proportion in urban regions as well as to schools that serve a high proportion of low-income, racialized or other equity-deserving communities.

Key dates:

May 5, 2025 Grant application window OPENS 

June 13, 2025 Grant application window CLOSES (11:59 pm ET) 

Late August 2025 Grant recipients notified

Sept 2025 – June 2026 School projects are implemented

End of June 2026 Deadline for participating schools to submit their grant experience survey & story

How to apply:

1. Review the Grant Guidelines – English  |  français.
2. Review our information webinar from Wednesday May 21 – recording here
   
3. Plan your project and use this template – English  |  français – to prepare your application responses (optional, but recommended)
4. Complete the Online Form – English  |  français – and submit your application

Eligible costs:

For all of the grants, a portion of allotted funds must be used to support in-school meal programs. Eligible costs include:

• Partnerships: bringing community partners together to support program planning, implementation and/or delivery
• Kitchen equipment to support student meal service. This may include appliances, pots and pans, reusable dishes, utensils, equipment for preserving foods, etc.
• Equipment and material costs for growing, foraging or harvesting food (e.g. lumber, soil, seeds, etc.)
• Minor costs for food service space modifications.
• Food costs (a maximum of 25%-50% of the grant may be used for food costs depending on the amount requested; the remaining budget must go towards equipment or food literacy programming)

Funds can also be spent on other school food program costs such as:

• Field trip to a market, farm, forest, or other place that supports the local food system. This may include a
  follow-up in-school activity such as using fresh ingredients from the field trip for cooking or canning
  demonstrations in school.
• Honoraria for food literacy activities: nominal, one-time recognition for community members and partners
  who provide support in delivering food literacy.
• Hosting in-school guest speakers and workshops on gardening, harvesting, cooking or other food literacy
  topics.

See the full set of details about Eligible Costs in the Grant Guidelines.

How will applications be selected?

Applications will be screened for eligibility based on the following criteria:

• The applicant meets the eligibility criteria
• The requested funds are in the amount of $1,000, $3,000, $5,000 or $10,000. We will ask you to specify which amount you are asking for; however, you will be able to tick a box to say that you would like to be considered for a smaller amount as well. If you are offered a smaller grant than you requested we will ask you to modify and resubmit your budget before receiving the funding.
• The application form has been completed in full, and submitted online by June 13, 2025 (11:59 pm ET)
• The proposed activities support the vision of seeing more fresh, healthy and culturally appropriate food in schools as well as students more involved in hands-on food literacy education, and the activities reflect the local context, vision and needs. Applicants should consider and speak to the unique geographic, social and cultural contexts of their school community and how these will be honoured, respected and reflected in their proposed activities.
• It is clear how the proposed activities will have an impact on the school community and contribute to positive change in the school food environment. 

Grants will be selected by a selection committee, with a greater proportion of grants given to schools in urban regions as well as to schools that serve a high proportion of low-income, racialized or other equity-deserving communities.

A review committee will validate the selected applications to confirm eligibility according to the criteria outlined above.