Michigan Organizations Receive Funding to Strengthen Local School Food System through Innovation Hub
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EmailFive Michigan organizations will receive grant awards up to $200,000 per year from the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub to expand access to local, healthy, and delicious food in schools.
East Lansing, MI— Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub announced the 2026 grantees from Michigan who will lead collaborative projects to bring more local, nourishing food to K–12 schools. These projects are part of a multi-state effort to strengthen connections between Midwest farmers, industry partners, food producers, and K–12 schools. Each grantee team will receive up to $200,000 per year to expand access to food that reflects the region’s rich agricultural heritage and supports local economies.
“We’re thrilled to see Michigan organizations stepping up to build stronger food pathways between our farms and our schools,” said May Tsupros, Director of Farm to Institution Programs at Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems, the Innovation Hub’s Michigan partner. “These projects are about making school meals more local, more delicious and more connected to the communities they serve.”
The 2026 grantee teams from Michigan include:
Detroit Fresh Futures Initiative (Detroit, MI): Led by Eastern Market, this project will increase participation of small food producers and local food businesses, improve the quality and quantity of nutritious foods that align with USDA school meal pattern requirements, and expand access to nourishing foods for students across the Detroit region.
Grow a Salad Bar, Produce a Meal! (Whitehall, MI): Led by Whitehall District Schools, this project merges agriscience with foodservice to transform students into the architects of a circular food system that replaces processed goods with fresh, scratch-cooked nutrition.
Growing the School Food System: Students, Farmers, and Schools (Mears, MI): Led by Wittkamp Grain and Vegetable LLC, this project reimagines how school meals, summer food programs, and local agriculture work together by using rural, non-congregate summer meals as a high-impact entry point to move local fruits and vegetables from peak harvest directly to students and families across the West Michigan region.
The HARVEST Hub Project: A Local School Wellness Policy-Anchored Framework for School Food, Learning, and Community (Plymouth, MI): Led by Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, this is a pilot initiative rooted in the Local School Wellness Policy that realigns school food with education—expanding access to Michigan-grown food, embedding food systems into authentic student learning, and preventing food waste before it occurs.
Michigan School Local Food Readiness Audit - Local Food Made Easy (Grand Rapids, MI): Led by Farmish, this project helps school districts objectively understand what it takes to source more local food within existing staffing, procurement, and operational constraints and provides a scalable, school-centered framework that strengthens local procurement pathways while building long-term student understanding and acceptance of local food.
The Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Administration as part of its Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative. This is the second year of grantmaking by the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub, which supports projects across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Grants are awarded to teams that may include farmers, industry partners, schools, food hubs, community organizations, suppliers, and other partners working to improve how local food reaches students.
“These are practical, community-driven ideas that will make a real difference—not only for students, but for our food producers and local businesses as well,” said Tsupros. A full list of 2026 grantees can be found at InnovateSchoolFood.org.
Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub nurtures community-driven collaborations that reimagine students’ meals. By working together, we’re building pathways for local, nutritious and culturally relevant food to reach more schools across Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana—especially in areas that don’t have equitable access to resources. We offer funding, training and other help to collectives of schools, school districts, organizations, farmers, producers, suppliers, distributors, and other food industry partners who are transforming our school food system to better serve our communities. Organizations leading the initiative include Seven Generations Ahead (Illinois), Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (Michigan), NWI Food Council (Indiana), Kids Forward (Wisconsin), healthTIDE (Wisconsin), and Action for Healthy Kids. The Lake Michigan School Food Systems Innovation Hub is funded by USDA. InnovateSchoolFood.org