STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1151--C
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 7, 2021
___________
Introduced by Sens. KAPLAN, ADDABBO, BOYLE, BRESLIN, COMRIE, COONEY,
GAUGHRAN, GOUNARDES, HARCKHAM, HOYLMAN, JACKSON, KENNEDY, KRUEGER,
LIU, MAY, RIVERA, SKOUFIS, THOMAS -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee -- committee discharged, bill amended,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee --
recommitted to the Committee on Finance in accordance with Senate Rule
6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing the
"hunger-free campus act"
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 "hunger-
2 free campus act".
3 § 2. The education law is amended by adding a new section 319 to read
4 as follows:
5 § 319. Hunger-free campus grant program. 1. The commissioner shall
6 establish the hunger-free campus grant program pursuant to this section
7 and regulations of the commissioner adopted for such purpose. Within the
8 amounts appropriated for this purpose, the commissioner shall award
9 grants on a competitive basis to public and nonprofit private insti-
10 tutions for higher education which have one or more campuses that are
11 designated by the commissioner as hunger-free campuses.
12 2. The purpose of the grant funding shall be to:
13 a. address student hunger;
14 b. leverage more sustainable solutions to address basic food needs on
15 campus;
16 c. raise awareness of services currently offered on campus which
17 address basic food needs; and
18 d. continue to build strategic partnerships at the local, state, and
19 national levels to address food insecurity among students.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05613-09-2
S. 1151--C 2
1 3. a. For a four-year institution to be designated as a hunger-free
2 campus, such institution shall:
3 (i) establish a hunger task force which includes student represen-
4 tatives from the student body that meets a minimum of three times per
5 academic year to set at least two goals with action plans;
6 (ii) designate a staff member responsible for assisting students with
7 enrollment in the state's supplemental nutrition assistance program
8 (SNAP);
9 (iii) provide options for students to utilize SNAP benefits at campus
10 stores or provide students with information on establishments in the
11 surrounding area of campus where they can utilize SNAP EBT benefits;
12 (iv) hold an awareness day campaign activity or event during the
13 national hunger and homelessness awareness week;
14 (v) provide at least one physical food pantry on campus, or enable
15 students to receive food through a separate, stigma-free arrangement.
16 Such campus may partner with a local food bank or food pantry to meet
17 the requirements of this subparagraph;
18 (vi) develop a student meal credit donation program, or designate a
19 certain amount of funds for free food vouchers that might otherwise be
20 raised through such a program. Each institution of higher education may
21 develop its own procedures for a meal donation program; and
22 (vii) annually conduct a student survey on hunger, developed by the
23 commissioner, and submit the results of the survey and a best practices
24 campus profile to the commissioner at a time prescribed by the commis-
25 sioner for inclusion in a comparative profile of each campus designated
26 as a hunger-free campus. In the development of the survey, the commis-
27 sioner shall utilize any existing surveys designed to collect informa-
28 tion on food insecurity among students enrolled in public and nonprofit
29 private institutions of higher education.
30 b. For a two-year institution to be designated as a hunger-free
31 campus, it shall meet all of the requirements for four-year institutions
32 as set forth in paragraph a of this subdivision, with the exception of
33 the requirements in subparagraphs (iii) and (vi) of such paragraph.
34 4. The commissioner shall allocate grant funding to each public and
35 nonprofit private institution of higher education that has one or more
36 campuses designated by the commissioner as a hunger-free campus in
37 accordance with the criteria established pursuant to subdivision three
38 of this section. The commissioner shall determine the amount of each
39 grant which shall be used by the institution to further address food
40 insecurity among students enrolled in the institution. The commissioner
41 or his or her designee shall prioritize grants to institutions of higher
42 education with the highest percentage of Pell grant recipients enrolled
43 in the student body. Following the awarding of such grant funding,
44 recipients will be expected to provide basic information to the depart-
45 ment on how such grant award was used, its deliverables and outcomes.
46 5. The commissioner shall submit a report to the governor, the tempo-
47 rary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly, no later
48 than two years after the establishment of the hunger-free campus grant
49 program. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the number and
50 amounts of the grant awards, the impact the grant program has had on
51 establishing additional hunger-free campuses at public and private
52 institutions of higher education and reducing the number of students
53 experiencing food insecurity, and recommendations regarding the poten-
54 tial establishment of an annual appropriation for the grant program.
55 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
