Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program

Deadline: March 30, 2012

Applications may be submitted by: (a) U.S. public or private nonprofit colleges and universities offering a baccalaureate or first professional degree in at least one discipline or area of the food and agricultural sciences; (b) land-grant colleges and universities, (including land grant institutions in the Insular Areas); (c) colleges and universities having significant minority enrollments and a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences; and (d) other colleges and universities having a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences. 

Agency Name

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Description

Projects supported by the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program will: (1) address a State, regional, national, or international educational need; (2) involve a creative or non-traditional approach toward addressing that need that can serve as a model to others; (3) encourage and facilitate better working relationships in the university science and education community, as well as between universities and the private sector, to enhance program quality and supplement available resources; and (4) result in benefits that will likely transcend the project duration and USDA support. 

Link to Full Announcement

Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program

PA Ag webinar to focus on financing

Lending in Greener Pastures: Taking a Closer Look at Agricultural Economic Development

Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Webinar
9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Conference Info & Registration

Farmers Grow Rural Education program

[from Philanthropy News Digest] Monsanto Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company, has announced the launch of its America's Farmers Grow Rural Education program. The grant program will provide grants in over twelve hundred counties across thirty-nine states to help strengthen local communities and education systems, especially in the areas of science and/or math. Grants will be awarded based on merit, need, and community support.

The program invites farmers to nominate a public school district in their community to compete for a grant. Administrators from nominated school districts can then submit an application for either a $10,000 or $25,000 grant to support a science and/or math education program.

School districts that apply for a $10,000 grant will compete against other school districts located in a USDA-appointed Crop Reporting District; CRDs with fewer than five eligible school districts will compete against each other for a single grant. A school district that applies for a $25,000 grant will compete against schools located in its state or designated region. The Monsanto Fund will award a hundred and ninety-nine grants through the program in 2012: a hundred and seventy-seven $10,000 grants and twenty-two grants of $25,000. Overall, the fund will donate more than $2.3 million to school districts through the program.

To be eligible to submit a nomination, farmers must be at least 21 years old and actively engaged in farming a minimum of two hundred and fifty acres of corn, soybeans, and/or cotton, and/or forty acres of open field vegetables, or at least ten acres of vegetables grown in protected culture; and must reside in eligible counties where a minimum of thirty thousand acres of corn and/or soybeans and/or cotton and/or vegetables are planted each year.

Visit the America's Farmers Grow Rural Education Web site for the complete list of eligible states and regions, program guidelines, and nomination procedures.

Link to Complete RFP

Monsanto Fund Invites Farmers to Nominate School Districts for America's Farmers Grow Rural Education Grant Program

Monsanto Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company, has announced the launch of its America's Farmers Grow Rural Education program.

The grant program will provide grants in over twelve hundred counties across thirty-nine states to help strengthen local communities and education systems, especially in the areas of science and/or math. Grants will be awarded based on merit, need, and community support.

The program invites farmers to nominate a public school district in their community to compete for a grant. Administrators from nominated school districts can then submit an application for either a $10,000 or $25,000 grant to support a science and/or math education program.

School districts that apply for a $10,000 grant will compete against other school districts located in a USDA-appointed Crop Reporting District; CRDs with fewer than five eligible school districts will compete against each other for a single grant. A school district that applies for a $25,000 grant will compete against schools located in its state or designated region. The Monsanto Fund will award a hundred and ninety-nine grants through the program in 2012: a hundred and seventy-seven $10,000 grants and twenty-two grants of $25,000. Overall, the fund will donate more than $2.3 million to school districts through the program.

To be eligible to submit a nomination, farmers must be at least 21 years old and actively engaged in farming a minimum of two hundred and fifty acres of corn, soybeans, and/or cotton, and/or forty acres of open field vegetables, or at least ten acres of vegetables grown in protected culture; and must reside in eligible counties where a minimum of thirty thousand acres of corn and/or soybeans and/or cotton and/or vegetables are planted each year.

Visit the America's Farmers Grow Rural Education Web site for the complete list of eligible states and regions, program guidelines, and nomination procedures.

Contact:
Link to Complete RFP

Pennsylvania Eligible Counties:
CRD 10: Crawford, Erie, Mercer
CRD 20: Lycoming
CRD 40: Butler, Indiana
CRD 50: Blair, Centre, Columbia, Dauphin, Northumberland, Perry
CRD 60: Lehigh, Northampton, Schuykill 
CRD 70: Somerset, Westmoreland
CRD 80: Adams, Bedford, Cumberland, Franklin, York
CRD 90: Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Lebanon