Center for Regional Food Systems

Local food purchasing incentives (LFPIs) are programs that provide additional funding to child nutrition program (CNP) operators to directly offset or incentivize local food purchases. As interest continues to rise in local food purchasing incentive (LFPI) policies, the conversations around them are expanding beyond prioritizing purchases based simply on whether they are “local” foods. 

One of the main differences between LFPIs is their focus on incentivizing specific types of food or nonfood products. This decision ends up significantly impacting various agricultural sectors and the ability for CNPs to participate in a program. Many states extend the scope of LFPIs to include nonfood items such as equipment, staff time, transportation, and labor. We define these as expanded LFPIs.  

This resource provides an overview of expanded LFPI designs and offers benefits of administering an expanded LFPI. 

This document is part of a resource series on Local Food Purchasing Incentives (LFPIs), produced through collaboration between the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS) and the National Farm to School Network. This project aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on LFPIs and provide more information for farm to school advocates and practitioners nationwide. 

Explore other resources in this series at foodsystems.msu.edu/local-food-purchasing-incentives. To learn more about states that offer LFPI’s, check out farmtoschool.org/policy/lfpi.