Building What’s Next for Farm to School: A Record $2 Million in Prize Awards
The 2026 New England Food Vision Prize celebrates 23 projects across all six New England states that are strengthening the connections between local food, schools, students, and regional food systems.
Following a review of this year’s Prize proposals, the Henry P. Kendall Foundation’s Board of Trustees was excited by the strength, diversity, and potential of the projects and approved additional funding, bringing the total Prize awards to $2,070,695 – the largest pool of funding in the Prize’s history!
This year’s response to the Prize was extraordinary. We received Letters of Interest representing $7 million in requests from 78 teams, reflecting the growing momentum behind farm to school across the region. The 23 recipients will support projects expected to reach more than 1 million students across 677 schools.
The projects reflect a range of approaches to strengthening farm to school across New England, from investing in regional food supply chains to coordinating local purchasing and creating new opportunities for students to engage with local food.
Supply Chain Investments
A clear theme across this year’s projects is the infrastructure needed to make local food accessible and practical for school nutrition programs. Recipients are investing in cold storage, processing, aggregation, transportation, and distribution.
Some projects address familiar infrastructure challenges, while others are creating new supply chains. In Rhode Island, one project will connect locally grown buckwheat and flint corn with school meals by developing the capacity to turn them into products such as soba noodles and cornbread.
School District & Campus Initiatives
Farm to school is about more than procurement. Across the region, recipients are investing in school nutrition training, kitchen equipment, scratch cooking, student recipe challenges, cafeteria events, and opportunities for students to learn about local farms and food systems.
The work also extends to higher education, with one New Hampshire project launching a Local Organic Food Pilot with Keene State College. The project will connect local producers with campus dining through wholesale readiness training, student engagement, and producer-buyer relationship development.
Coordinated Purchasing Efforts
A creative strategy aimed at increasing the purchasing power of smaller school districts is gaining traction around the region. By aggregating demand across districts, coordinated purchasing can help schools access more local and regional products while creating more consistent markets for producers.
In Aroostook County, Maine’s largest and northernmost county, the St. John Valley Soil and Water Conservation District is bringing three school districts together to coordinate purchasing that will help address fragmented procurement and create more reliable markets for local Maine farmers.
A Growing Regional Movement
Together, the 2026 New England Food Vision Prize recipients demonstrate the creativity and commitment driving farm to school forward across New England.
The work looks different in every community. It might mean expanding cold storage, developing a regional processing operation, coordinating purchasing across districts, equipping a school kitchen, connecting a farmer with a campus, or giving students new ways to experience local food.
But the goal is shared: to strengthen the connections between New England farms, food businesses, schools, and students.
We are proud to support this year’s cohort and look forward to seeing what these 23 projects make possible.
