Creates the "healthy kids act" pilot program to encourage students to develop healthy eating habits at school; includes ten participating school districts that shall be eligible to receive a grant to offset costs; appropriates $2,000,000 therefor.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1569
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 10, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. TEDISCO, KOLB, CONTE, RAIA, BARCLAY -- Multi-
Sponsored by -- M. of A. THIELE -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Education
AN ACT to create the "Healthy Kids Act" pilot program to encourage
students to develop healthy eating habits and makes an appropriation
therefor
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Healthy
2 Kids Act".
3 § 2. The board of regents is hereby authorized and directed to estab-
4 lish a three-year pilot program to encourage students to develop healthy
5 eating habits in not less than ten school districts in New York state.
6 1. School districts may apply, in accordance with criteria developed by
7 the board of regents, to be selected to participate in such program. In
8 selecting participating school districts, the board shall choose school
9 districts that are representative of the geographic and financial diver-
10 sity of the state, and have demonstrated a commitment to encouraging
11 students to develop healthy eating habits. The pilot program shall
12 commence in the 2012-2013 school year. Participating school districts
13 will be eligible to receive grants, insofar as such funds are made
14 available by the legislature.
15 2. A participating school district shall comply with all of the
16 following program requirements:
17 a. No beverage shall be sold to students from one-half hour before the
18 start of the school day until one-half hour after the end of the school
19 day, except for the following:
20 (i) fruit-based drinks that are composed of no less than fifty percent
21 fruit juice and have no added sweeteners;
22 (ii) drinking water;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01485-01-1
A. 1569 2
1 (iii) milk, including but not limited to, chocolate milk, soy milk,
2 rice milk, and other dairy or non-dairy milk; and
3 (iv) electrolyte replacement beverages that do not contain more than
4 forty-two grams of added sweetener per twenty-ounce serving.
5 b. No food or snack item shall be sold to students from vending
6 machines from one-half hour before the start of the school day until
7 one-half hour after the end of the school day, unless such food or snack
8 meets the standards set forth in the United States department of agri-
9 culture's guidelines for the federal school lunch program.
10 c. For the purposes of this subdivision, "added sweeteners" means all
11 sugars used as ingredients in processed and prepared beverages and
12 foods, including non-caloric sweeteners such as saccharin and aspartame,
13 but not including natural sugars that are contained within the fruit or
14 fruit juice.
15 § 3. Each school district that is selected to participate in the
16 "Healthy Kids Act" pilot program shall be eligible to receive a grant to
17 offset the costs of developing and adopting policies pursuant to this
18 act. The grants shall be a one-time grant and shall be used to provide
19 funding for approved vendor contracts; assist in the purchase and
20 conversion of vending machines; and to offset the economic loss, if any,
21 suffered by districts no longer authorized to enter into certain
22 contracts related to the sale of food and soft drinks.
23 § 4. The sum of two million dollars ($2,000,000), or so much thereof
24 as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated to the education department
25 out of any moneys in the state treasury in the general fund, not other-
26 wise appropriated, and made immediately available, for the purpose of
27 carrying out the provisions of this act. Such moneys shall be payable on
28 the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified or
29 approved by the commissioner of education in the manner prescribed by
30 law.
31 § 5. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
32 it shall have become a law; provided, however, that effective immediate-
33 ly, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation
34 necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date is
35 authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before such
36 effective date.
