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Farm to School Local Food Purchasing Incentives: Program Development Considerations and Team Planning Guide
By Cassandra Bull, National Farm to School Network Policy Specialist and Colleen Matts, Director, Farm to Institution Programs Center for Regional Food Systems, Michigan State University
Local Food Purchasing Incentives (LFPIs) are programs that provide additional funding to child nutrition program (CNP) operators to directly offset or incentivize local food purchases. Typically funded and operated at the state level, these programs intend to increase purchasing of local foods in school and early care and education (ECE) settings.
Across the country, LFPIs are unique in type, size, and complexity, based on the specific cultural, political, and socioeconomic contexts of each state.
The purpose of this resource is to provide LFPI program designers and stakeholders with essential questions to create programs, or modify elements of existing programs.
This document is part of a resource series on Local Food Purchasing Incentives (LFPIs), produced through collaboration between the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS) and the National Farm to School Network. This project aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on LFPIs and provide more information for farm to school advocates and practitioners nationwide.
Explore other resources in this series at foodsystems.msu.edu/local-food-purchasing-incentives. To learn more about states that offer LFPI’s, check out farmtoschool.org/policy/lfpi.
