Appendix B.3 Census Preparation Worksheet

APPENDIX B.3

census preparation worksheet

2027 FARM TO SCHOOL CENSUS PREPARATION WORKSHEET

This optional worksheet is designed to help you gather information you will be asked as part of the Census. It will assist you to more quickly complete the survey. Please use this tool to gather information from schools, other departments, staff, partners, and/or vendors before filling out the Census. The worksheet can be discarded after the Census is completed. You can and should still complete the Census even if you do not have all of the requested information or do not have exact figures.

Please list the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) District ID Number for the district(s) that your SFA provides meals for. Click here to look up an NCES ID number [https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/].

Approximately how many schools within the SFA participated in the following activities during SY 2026-27?

	Number of schools
Participated in any farm to school activity
Served local1 food in any form
Provided food, nutrition, or agricultural education

In SY 2026-27, how many staff in your SFA, schools, and district (e.g., food service staff, garden educators, AmeriCorps members, teachers) spent time on farm to school activities? Please only include paid staff, including any contracted and grant-funded staff.

	Number of staff
Number of full-time2 staff whose job is dedicated to farm to school activities.
Number of staff (including full-time AND part-time staff) who use some portion of their time for farm to school activities but whose job is not fully dedicated to farm to school activities.

Approximately how many schools in the SFA had edible school gardens during SY 2026-27?

____ schools

For SY 2026-27, please indicate if your SFA procured local foods using any of the following sources, and if so, what percent of your local purchasing (based on the dollars spent) came from each of the sources you selected.

Source for local foods	Used this source? Y/N	Percentage of local spending
Directly from an individual food producer (i.e., farmer, rancher, fisher), including but not limited to a farmers’ market or CSA model
Directly from a cooperative3 of producers (i.e., farmers, ranchers or fishers)
Directly from a local food processor or manufacturer
Food hub4
Grocery store
School or community garden/farm
Produce distributor
Broadline distributor
USDA DoD Fresh Program5
USDA Foods6
Other:

The following questions ask how much money your SFA spent on food and local food during SY 2026-27.

Spending	Amount Spent
Total food spending (NOT including USDA Foods or DoD Fresh)
Spending on local food, including fluid milk (NOT including USDA Foods or DoD Fresh)
Spending on local fluid milk
Total spending on USDA Foods (NOT including USDA DoD Fresh)
Spending on local foods through USDA Foods (NOT including USDA DoD Fresh)
Total spending on USDA DoD Fresh (NOT including USDA Foods)
Spending on local foods through USDA DoD Fresh (NOT including USDA Foods)

In SY 2026-2027, what five local items, of any type and in any form, did your SFA spend the most on? Please include spending through entitlement funds, that is, through USDA Foods and/or USDA DoD Fresh.

From what source(s) did you purchase each item? Please see above for the options for types of sources for local foods, such as directly from an individual food producer.

	Item	Sources()
Top local item
Second local item
Third local item
Fourth local item
Fifth local item

This information is being collected to assist the Food and Nutrition Service in understanding and tracking farm to school engagement. This is a mandatory collection and FNS will use the information to set priorities for USDA outreach and technical support. This collection does not request any personally identifiable information under the Privacy Act of 1974. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-0646. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 0.5 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support, 1320 Braddock Place, 5th Floor, Alexandria, VA 22706 ATTN: PRA (0584-0646). Do not return the completed form to this address.

1 Local: The USDA Child Nutrition Programs do not define “local.” Please use your SFA’s understanding or definition of the term (e.g., within a 100-mile radius, within the State).

2 Defined as working at least 40 hours in one week

3 A business that is owned by its members or employees. In a farmer cooperative, several farmers may work together to market their products and/or purchase supplies.

4 A centrally located facility that aggregates, stores, processes, distributes, and/or markets locally/regionally produced food products.

⁵ The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Department of Defense (DoD) Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program allows schools to use entitlement dollars to buy fresh produce.

⁶ The USDA Foods in Schools Program provides American agricultural products for use in meals in the NSLP, CACFP and SFSP. School food authorities receive USDA Foods (also called “entitlement foods” or “commodity foods”) at an established per meal rate.