Fulton County Schools kept buying from local farmers for cafeterias at North Springs High School, Riverwood International Charter School and its roughly 100 other campuses this year, even after the federal grant that helped pay for it disappeared. The district covered the added cost itself rather than end those contracts, Alyssia Wright, the district's executive director for school nutrition, told Rough Draft Atlanta on Aug. 26.

The funding gap traces back to March 2025, when the Trump administration terminated the USDA's Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, which had funneled more than $1 billion nationally to schools in 2024. Facing that loss, Wright said the district could have dropped its farm partnerships. Instead, Fulton found the money elsewhere in its budget.

"Although there are a lot of challenges financially, I have not compromised the quality that I serve to my students," Wright said.

Two new federal programs could ease that pressure. The USDA unveiled its Harvest to Hallways initiative on Aug. 24, directing $50 million toward cafeteria equipment like cold storage and stoves, plus up to $25 million in new Patrick Leahy Farm to School grants for fiscal year 2026. Combined with $20 million in equipment grants announced earlier, the package totals roughly $95 million.

Two days later, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its own $32.5 million program, called DEPEND, short for Developing Evidence for Programs to Ensure Nutrition for Development. It will fund schools that test ways to replace processed foods with fresher meals, with individual awards ranging from $75,000 to $2.5 million.

Neither program closes the gap left by the terminated federal program. Advocates say the combined new funding still falls roughly $1 billion short nationally, as the Record reported Aug. 27.

That shortfall lands on a district already squeezed. The Fulton County Board of Education adopted a $2.3 billion budget for 2026-27 in June that carries a $56.9 million deficit, and the district has listed raising meal prices as one way to manage costs. It serves lunch to about 41,000 students daily across 93 self-operating kitchens, at a cost of $5.20 per plate against a $3.35 maximum student price — a gap of $1.85 the district covers itself.

No Fulton official has said publicly whether the district plans to apply for either program.

The DEPEND application cycle has not opened. HHS expects to announce its first awards in October.