New Year 2 Rural Health Transformation Program grant. On October 16, 2026, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) opened the Community Health Worker + Accountable Food is Medicine (CHW+AFIM) grant round. This competitive applicant-facing subrecipient opportunity supports integrating community health workers into rural clinical care teams and establishing or expanding medically tailored food, grocery, and produce-prescription interventions for eligible patients.
Applicant funding: The official RFA anticipates approximately seven individual grants ranging from $100,000 to $210,000 each. Its proposed $1,451,890.29 Year 2 funding pool is the overall program allocation, not a per-applicant award. Actual awards depend on merit, KDHE decisions, federal Year 2 budget approval and receipt of funds; the stated range is anticipated, not guaranteed.
Application status and deadline: KDHE identifies the application window as open from October 16 through November 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM Central Time on its program page, its October 16 announcement, and the RFA application instructions. The controlling eight-page RFA’s funding table, submission instructions, and application timeline all specify November 18, 2026; no conflicting November 16 deadline appears in that document.
Who may apply: Rural Kansas-based healthcare organizations, including eligible hospitals, rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers and look-alikes, local health departments, primary care clinics, Tribal healthcare facilities, and certified community behavioral-health clinics. Applicants must obtain an active Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), and State of Kansas SMART Vendor ID. Proposed programs must serve rural Kansas residents and comply with the official clinical and reporting criteria.
Eligible work: Awardees are expected to hire up to two community health workers, support their approved competency and AFIM training, build screening and clinical referral workflows, provide chronic-disease and nutrition interventions in consultation with clinicians or dietitians, implement evaluation measures, and develop CHW billing and long-term sustainability plans. Food delivery infrastructure is being coordinated separately with philanthropic partners. The RFA prohibits use of these grant funds for food and beverages; the proposed work must follow that restriction.
Funding terms and restrictions: KDHE describes documented, obligation-based advance payments under a subrecipient agreement, subject to federal allowability and reporting requirements. Indirect costs may not exceed 10% of the award. The RFA excludes new construction, replacement of reimbursable clinical-care payments, certain non-compete clinician salary support, lobbying, and other prohibited expenses. A universal nonfederal applicant match percentage is not specified. The performance period runs through September 30, 2028, but salary, fringe and travel funds must be spent earlier under the RFA.
How to apply: Submit through KDHE’s official online application portal, with a completed signed W-9, the provided Excel budget template and budget narrative, evidence of UEI registration, and the required application answers. The RFA specifies formatting rules and review criteria covering organizational capacity, target population, partnerships, implementation, sustainability, budget and evaluation. Applications with missing mandatory materials can fail responsiveness review.
Official controlling documents: KDHE CHW+AFIM Year 2 RFA (eight pages); KDHE funding page and application portal; KDHE October 16 announcement. Official-source reverified October 27, 2026. Review any subsequent KDHE amendments before filing; the current eight-page RFA consistently identifies November 18, 2026, at noon Central as the deadline.