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Love Your Veggies™ Grant Guidelines

Millions of students across America consume meals at school daily. For many children, school lunch is the most important meal of the day, contributing one-third of their nutritional intake, according to the USDA¹. Recognizing that schools, educators and school food service staff are dedicated to supporting improved children’s nutrition, the makers of Hidden Valley® salad dressings, in partnership with the School Nutrition Foundation, and Produce for Better Health Foundation, want to help schools improve children’s nutrition.

In a 2006 study with two Northern California elementary schools conducted by the University of California Davis Department of Nutrition, California Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and Butte County Cooperative Extension, children ate 23 percent more vegetables when paired with a moderate amount of ranch dressing. In celebration of children’s love of vegetables with ranch dressing, the makers of Hidden Valley® salad dressings are awarding ten (10) fifteen thousand dollar ($15,000) grants to elementary schools across the United States to support programs that help provide students with increased access to, and consumption of fresh, healthy foods made available through an on-campus vegetable consumption program.

Each grant award will support an elementary school in developing a vegetable program offering fresh produce to be implemented as early as April 2009 and lasting through the 2009-2010 school year. Each school grant will consist of $15,000 in direct funding.*

Funding must be spent on any of the following:

All applications must be submitted via the grant program’s Web site, www.LoveYourVeggiesGrants.org. Applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Nov. 7, 2008. Late applications will not be accepted. Schools will be notified of their award status soon after Feb. 1, 2009, with a target date of no later than Feb. 15, 2009. A public announcement of all ten winners will be made in April 2009.

*Purchase of Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® dressings and products will not be required.

Application Requirements

Proposed Program

Applications should briefly and adequately convey the specifics of how the proposed vegetable program would work. Details such as how the program will be implemented, where fresh produce will be procured, number of students participating, monetary cost to students, method of assuring standards of food safety, proposed nutrition education tools and materials, elements of community involvement and plan for sustainability must all be addressed. Schools may use the program to enhance national school lunch program offerings.

Elements of a successful grant application include: innovative/new ways to increase vegetable consumption; student, parent and school personnel involvement in all phases of the program; nutrition education component; plan for sustainability; opportunity for community involvement.

Detailed Budget

Applicants will be required to provide a detailed budget justification allotting monies for the following allowable expenses: fresh produce; kitchen or vegetable station equipment; cost of food for recipe demonstrations/taste testing that promotes healthy food (vegetables); cost for food samples associated with nutrition education activities; purchase of nutrition education materials; staff time to prepare, serve and clean-up food for vegetable stations; demonstrations and/or taste testing purposes; refreshments for student, parent, school personnel meetings related to the project.

All equipment must be reasonable, necessary and integral to the project. Kitchen appliances may be purchased only with justification of reasonable and necessary need.

Applicants must also budget between $100 and $300 for access to and completion of any one of the following SNA-approved Food Safety and Sanitation courses: Serving It Safe (SNA/SNF/USDA), ServeSafe (NRA), Sanitation and Safety Exam with Dietary Managers Association (DMA), NEHA Food Safety Management Principles Certification Training Course, or any other SNA-approved state association course, if not already food safety certified by the School Nutrition Association.

Evaluation and Reporting

Each grant recipient must complete brief questionnaires provided by the makers of Hidden Valley® to report on the progress of their vegetable program implementation by the first of the following months: October 2009, February 2010, and May 2010. Information such as vegetable consumption increases or decreases, number of students participating in vegetable program, and general attitude of students and staff toward vegetable program will be necessary for the completion of said questionnaires.

Judging

Grant awards will be based on proposals that demonstrate: need (need for funding, youths’ nutrition needs, students underserved by existing programs); innovation (innovative, appropriate and creative evaluation methods, innovative enhancement of existing support or program, inventive program scope); greatest likelihood of sustainable impact on the students they are serving (well-chosen, measurable goals, cost effective i.e., number of youth served related to budget, and low administrative costs, program scope, likelihood of sustainability once the grant period is over); and potential for community involvement (opportunity for members of the community to participate in the preparation, implementation and sustenance of proposed program).

Based on these criteria, the makers of Hidden Valley®, in their sole discretion and upon the recommendation by its partners the School Nutrition Association and Produce for a Better Health Foundation, will award ten (10) fifteen thousand dollar ($15,000) grants.

Application Checklist

Prior to accessing and beginning the online grant application found at www.LoveYourVeggiesGrants.org, applicants should possess all pieces of information found in the following checklist.

Verify Your Contact Information

Provide Information About Your School

Explanation of Need

Program Details

Program Implementation

Produce Procurement

Food Safety

Budget
Approximately how much of your $15,000 budget will be spent on each of the following:

*Equipment purchases must be reasonable, necessary and integral to the implementation of the proposed project. Kitchen appliances may be purchased only with justification of reasonable and necessary need.

Sustainability

Please Confirm the Following