Resources
What we offer
California's new $500 million Kitchen Infrastructure and Training (KIT) Fund can pay for hands-on food education in school gardens. The money is won; now it has to reach students. Here are the tools we offer.
Resources and tools
Find your SFA
Search the KIT money each school food authority (SFA) received in 2022 and 2025, or browse the county map.
2026 KIT Funding for Hands-On Food Education Fact Sheet
What the 2026 KIT Fund can pay for, who receives it and when, as of September 30, 2026.
The Data Project
How many California districts have a school garden and teach in it, from Ten Strands' 2024 analysis, with a video walkthrough.
An SFA is a school district, county office of education, or charter school that runs both federal school meal programs: the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. Most are school districts.
For SFAs and community organizations
Toolkits, trainings and guides
Ready to use
Annotated bibliography of garden-based learning research
Curated studies on what garden-based learning does for academic performance, nutrition, social and emotional growth and health, with notes on each. · Google Doc
Promising practice profiles
Case studies of district-wide school garden programs across sizes, demographics and regions. The link opens a summary of ten profiles. · Google Doc
Promising practice profile template
Make a copy to profile a district you know. · Google Doc
Advocacy 101: Your Step-by-Step Guide to School Garden Advocacy
How to make the case for school gardens to decision makers, step by step. · Google Doc
History of support and legislation for instructional school gardens, as of 2025
The laws and the support that came before, so new proposals build on them. · Google Doc
Aligned funding sources for outdoor education programs
Other funding that can pay for school garden and outdoor education programs, to pair with KIT funds. · Google Doc
California policy strategies
The routes to state funding the coalition weighed, and what each would take. · Google Doc
In development
KIT Funds: Hands-On Food Education Toolkit for CBOs
Case studies of districts partnering with community organizations, outreach templates for principals and nutrition services directors, and the KIT funding timeline, so a community organization can approach an SFA ready to be its partner. Draft shared October 16. Final expected by the end of 2026, depending on when the California Department of Education (CDE) releases its spending criteria.
KIT Funds toolkit for SFAs
Allowable uses, sample scopes of work, budget templates and contracting models for nutrition services departments. Follows the toolkit for community organizations.
Training webinars with the California Department of Education
Sessions on using KIT funds for hands-on food education and garden activities, co-hosted with CDE. Dates to come; recordings will be posted here.
Want to hear when these are ready? Get our newsletter.
Have a resource we should list? Write to us at hello@caschoolgardens.org.
Help fund this work
We are raising $80,000 for project management, so we can finish the toolkits and co-host training webinars with CDE.