2024 Equipment Assistance Grant Instructions

Enter the name of the district, charter school, county office of education, private school, or residential child care institution (RCCI).

Enter the street address, city, state, and zip code for the SFA.

Enter the CDE Service Location Number assigned to your SFA.

Select the county in which your SFA conducts business.

Enter the total amount of grant funding you are requesting for your SFA. Please note that there is a limit of five sites totaling $100,000 per SFA.

Select the total number of sites for which your SFA is applying for grant funds. Please note that there is a limit of five sites per SFA that may receive a grant.

Enter the name of the FSD. If you do not have an FSD, provide the name of the employee who will be the contact person for this grant.

Enter the area code and phone number of the FSD.

Name of superintendent, director, or administrator

Enter the name of the highest ranking official in your school or organization.

Enter the area code and phone number of the superintendent.

Provide the email address of the superintendent.

Does the SFA or agency have a capitalization threshold for equipment?

A capitalization threshold is defined as the dollar value at which an agency differentiates between items that are supplies versus equipment. Some smaller equipment may be considered a supply because of its dollar value. Each school board may designate a specific dollar amount for capitalized equipment. This is the dollar value at which your SFA considers a piece of equipment as an asset in the SFA’s financial statements.

Check no or yes to indicate your SFA’s capitalization threshold. Checking no means, the CDE will assign the federal capitalization threshold for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 of $1,000. Each piece of equipment requested on the application must have a total purchase or repair cost of $1,000 or greater to be eligible for 2024 EAG FY funding. Checking yes means your SFA has a capitalization threshold that is lower than $1,000. Equipment that the SFA requests on the application must have a total purchase or repair cost at or above the SFA’s capitalization threshold. If your SFA has a lower capitalization threshold, you will need to submit an official board policy documentation that supports the lower capitalization threshold. This policy must be sent to the CDE by 4 p.m. on Thursday, October 10, 2024, by email at equipmentgrant@cde.ca.gov.

Note: If the equipment your SFA is requesting does not meet or exceed your SFA’s capitalization threshold or the assigned threshold of $1,000 for FY 2024, it is considered a supply and cannot be funded with this grant.

For the four focus areas listed on the application, check as many boxes that apply under the four categories. If selecting other, provide an explanation.

Explain why the equipment your SFA requested is necessary to support the efforts selected above, emphasizing how the equipment will help improve nutritional quality, the offering of more freshly prepared food items, and meet the meal pattern standards; implement strategies to adopt lunchroom changes that provide convenience and appeal to students to increase meal participation; outdated and worn equipment; purchase food service equipment to increase the efficiency of SFA procurement, food storage, and distribution/service and help support the establishment of a new school kitchen or School Nutrition Program. Provide a detailed written explanation based on each item you are requesting. See Section B of the scoring criteria for examples and additional information.

Check either yes or no to indicate if the site or central kitchen received funds from either the 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023 NSLP EAG. Priority will be given to sites or central kitchens that did not receive funds from those grants.

Enter the name of the site for which you are requesting grant funds.

For each site application, enter the number assigned in your CNIPS account, not the SFA CNIPS ID number. The site number is located to the left of the site name in your CNIPS account listing of participating sites. Central kitchens might not have site numbers, in which case the field should be blank.

This site or central kitchen participates in:

• NSLP
• School Breakfast Program

Enter the number of students enrolled at the site or the total number of students served by this central kitchen on October 31, 2023.

Enter the total number of days that the site or central kitchen served reimbursable meals during the month of October 2023. If the site or central kitchen was not participating, enter 0 (zero).

Approved F/RP percentage. This is the site or central kitchen percentage of F/RP eligible students

Total Meal Count for the month of October 2023

Enter the name of the equipment you are requesting to purchase under the grant. You will be able to complete your requests for up to two pieces of equipment per page. If you are requesting more than two pieces of equipment, you will be able to do so on additional screens.

Enter the cost of one piece or unit of equipment.

The total cost includes the cost of installation, tax, and shipping as well as any modifications, attachments, or accessories your SFA needs to make the equipment usable.

Do not include the cost of vendor travel or training as these are unallowable expenses. Allowable cost information is on the CDE Cafeteria Fund Guidance web page.

Note: Each item of equipment must equal or exceed the SFA’s capitalization threshold. Any single item of equipment under the capitalization threshold will not be funded.

Enter the number of units requested that you plan to purchase or repair next to the auto-populated site or central kitchen name. The sites that were applied for in Section 2 will be listed here.

Enter the names of the vendors that you contacted for price quotes for this piece of equipment.

Note that each quote must be for the same item—this means that all specifications, accessories, installation costs and any other types of charge must be the same. In addition, the total cost of each piece of equipment must be at or over the capitalization threshold to qualify for this grant.

Sole Source: In rare situations, if your SFA is purchasing unique equipment, obtaining three quotes may not be possible. The purchase might fall under the category of sole source, where a particular vendor or manufacturer is the only entity from which you can purchase a unique piece of equipment. You must reach out to the EAG team prior to issuing a purchase order and receive written pre-approval. You can contact the Equipment Grant Team by email at equipmentgrant@cde.ca.gov.

Equipment requested will be:

• New
• Used
• Renovated or Repaired

Provide detailed information that demonstrates the site or central kitchen need for this equipment. Include things like age of equipment, why a new piece of equipment will improve the lunch program, storage space issues, items needed to improve efficacy in the lunchroom, implement or expand your school lunch program or make the meal program more enticing to students. See Section A of the scoring criteria for examples and additional information on what a perfect score should include.

Select yes or no to proceed.

Selecting yes will direct you to Section 3 to request two more pieces of equipment.

Selecting no will direct you to the end of the Grant Application where you can submit the application.

Enter the official’s full name to certify that all the information contained within all sections of the application is correct and that your SFA will observe all applicable local, state and federal procurement laws and regulations. The person signing must be designated by the Superintendent/Director/Administrator to sign the EAG application.