Eight Kansas schools, including one in Saline County, have been selected to receive state grants to promote the use of local foods in schools and agriculture education in the classroom.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture says Wednesday that it had awarded each of the schools $12,500 from the Farm to School program. Earning the grants were the districts of Lost Springs, Doniphan West, Ell-Saline, Eudora, Maize, Pike Valley, Rawlins County and St. Francis.

The grants are funded from resources the state received in 2013 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at linking local farmers and ranchers with school cafeterias. The program educates students about how food is produced and how it gets from the fields to stores and eventually to the dinner table.