Application Instructions

Overview

Funds and support are available for all California public libraries that help to provide summer meals for children and youth.

The Lunch at the Library program helps California public libraries:

  • Establish library locations as U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) summer meal sites.
  • Take pop-up libraries to other USDA community meal sites.
  • Provide learning and enrichment opportunities and wraparound community services in conjunction with  meals served.
  • Connect families with locally sourced, sustainable food, and hands-on food education opportunities.

Please review full programmatic details under About. 

Timeline

To Apply

Complete the 2025 Lunch at the Library online application no later than Wednesday, November 20, 2024, at noon (12:00 pm).

For planning purposes, please review the following information:

Budget

You will complete your budget and upload it to the online application once the  California State Library staff have approved your application and provided the final award amount.  Use the Grant Award Budget form (Excel) for planning purposes. 

Your budget will be a line-item breakdown, including descriptions of requested Grant Funds and Cash Match/In-kind Funds by budget category (Salaries/Wages/Benefits, Consultant Fees, Travel, Supplies/Materials, Equipment, Services, Indirect) for all activities.  As needed, refer to the Guidance for FTE when completing the Salaries/Wages/Benefits category.

Unallowable Expenditures

Please refer to the Restrictions on the Use of Grant Funds when creating your budget. Unallowable costs common for Lunch at the Library projects include but are not limited to the following:

  • Food and refreshments (food purchased for use in nutrition education programs like cooking demonstrations is allowable)
  • Performers for entertainment (Presentations offering enrichment for attendees are allowable)
  • Fundraising activities, including grant writing
  • Cash reserves and endowment holdings; purchase of land, buildings, or major construction
  • Non-educational social activities such as receptions, parties, galas
  • Gifts/prizes/incentives/giveaways; including cash prizes or gift certificates with monetary value, and Take and Make Kits (Books to build home libraries, which include literature connecting families to summer reading are allowable)
  • Contributions, donations, honorariums, stipends including cash, property, and services, that use grant funds and are made by grant recipients to others, regardless of the recipient
  • Expenses incurred before the start of the grant period or after the ending date of the grant period without an approved extension
  • Lobbying activities that are intended to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials
  • Backfill and salaries or benefits for individuals not directly contributing to the grant-funded project are not allowable as direct costs

Note for Youth Development program plans:

Interns: Payment using grant funds made to interns as wages, salaries, and payment for work under contract are allowable provided that the interns are only being paid for time spent directly on project-related activities and the payment method is not a stipend.  This form of payment belongs under Salaries/Wages/Benefits on your budget.

Scholarships: Grant funds can be used to fund scholarships for those participating in educational and workforce development activities as part of the grant program and in alignment with the primary purpose of the grant. Note, this is different from a stipend as listed above and belongs under Services on your budget.

Selection Criteria

All appropriate applications for the Lunch at the Library program will receive funding. Available funds are shared among participating libraries. Individual award amounts for returning grantees will be determined based on outputs from the previous year, and for new grantees, they will be determined based on the size and scope of the proposed plans.  For more information on the Lunch at the Library program, please see the About webpage.

Reporting Requirements

Grantees must collect and submit outputs and outcomes data on their Lunch at the Library summer activities. The State Library will provide standardized surveys to measure the impact of grantees’ activities.  Additionally, grantees must submit financial and narrative reports showing how project funds were spent. Full reporting materials summer 2025 will be provided to grantees on the Manage Your Grant webpage.

Acknowledgements

Grant recipients must ensure that the California State Library and the State of California are acknowledged as the source of program funds.  The full funding statement is found on the Toolkit webpage.

More Information

When submitting your application please include your plans for Summer 2025 as they currently stand. We understand that plans at this point are often tentative; changes in plans can be reviewed with California State Library staff throughout the grant period.

Be sure to include the following information:

  • Total number of planned library meal sites, including location name(s) and the number of days and weeks meals will be served
  • Plans to visit community meal sites to provide pop-up library services (specific locations do not need to be decided at the time of application)

Questions

If you have questions regarding the application process after reading all the information on this page, please contact the State Library’s Lunch at the Library team at lunch@library.ca.gov.

Photo of a group of teens standing in front of a vehicle with cart of books in background.