We're in!

The last part of the meeting was devoted to a discussion regarding the development of a small grants program that would help a few teams around the nation meet the criteria to apply for the USDA HealthierUS Schools Challenge.

Linda Jo Doctor, Program Officer in Health at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, guided the discussion of the elements required for the request for proposals, as well as the possibilities that a small, $5,000, grant presents for building community capacity and for leverage of other community and foundation funding.

This discussion helped define the parameters of the grant program. The fundamental criteria is that the applicants show the conditions to leverage the $5,000 grant and that they understand that racial equity is the key principle and foundation of the ALC effort. From that, the main question is: What are your major barriers to apply for the USDA Challenge? How would you use this money to address one or more of those barriers?

Public, non-charter schools, that serve racial and ethnic minorities and underserved populations with a low-income student rate of 80% or greater (as determined by the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced school meals) can apply for the program.

The Advisory Group members will also serve as mentors of the winning teams throughout the period of performance.

Please, read Appendix 7, Request for Proposals, for a detailed description of the small grant program, including full application criteria, project parameters, and more.

Next Steps

A detailed Action Learning Collaborative Timeline, spanning from April 2011 to July 2013, can be found in Appendix 4.