Directs the department of education to establish a fresh fruit and vegetable program providing sponsors of non-profit school breakfast, lunch or other school child feeding programs with payments for the purchase of fresh or minimally processed fruits and vegetables or providing such sponsors with purchased fresh or minimally processed fruits and vegetables to be offered to students as part of school lunches, breakfasts or snacks in the cafeteria or classroom.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7027
IN SENATE
March 8, 2010
___________
Introduced by Sen. ESPADA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing the fresh
fruit and vegetable program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 920 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 920. Fresh fruit and vegetable program. 1. The department shall
4 establish a fresh fruit and vegetable program providing sponsors of
5 non-profit school breakfast, lunch or other school child feeding
6 programs with payments for the purchase of fresh or minimally processed
7 fruits and vegetables or, providing, at the option of such sponsors,
8 purchased fresh or minimally processed fruits and vegetables to be
9 offered to students as part of school lunches, breakfasts or snacks in
10 the cafeteria or classroom. Such fruits and vegetables, to the maximum
11 extent practicable and in accordance with federal and state statutes and
12 rules and regulations, shall be grown and produced in New York state.
13 2. Funds for the fresh fruit and vegetable program shall be expended
14 subject to the limitation of funds available and shall be used to reim-
15 burse sponsors of non-profit school lunch, breakfast, or other school
16 child feeding programs five cents per the number of federally reimbursa-
17 ble breakfasts and lunches served in the prior fiscal year to students
18 under such program agreements entered into by the department and such
19 sponsors, in accordance with an act of Congress entitled the "National
20 School Lunch Act", P.L. 79-396, as amended, or the provisions of the
21 "Child Nutrition Act of 1966", P.L. 89-642, as amended. Such funds shall
22 be paid directly to such sponsors for the purposes of the fresh fruit
23 and vegetable program provided, however, that, at the request of a
24 school district or districts when necessary to procure New York state
25 grown or produced fresh or minimally processed fruits and vegetables
26 such funds may be directed to be used by the department or, by agree-
27 ment, other state agencies including, but not limited to the office of
28 general services and department of agriculture and markets.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01725-01-9
S. 7027 2
1 3. The department as part of the farm-to-school program, authorized
2 under subdivision thirty-one of section three hundred five of this
3 title, as added by chapter two of the laws of two thousand one, shall
4 provide guidance and technical assistance to schools to encourage
5 purchases of New York state grown and produced fresh or minimally proc-
6 essed fruits and vegetables. The department in coordination with the
7 department of health shall provide assistance to schools to encourage
8 consumption by students of the fresh or minimally processed fruits and
9 vegetables.
10 4. The commissioner shall adopt regulations to administer the fresh
11 fruit and vegetable program with the goal of promoting increased
12 consumption of fresh or minimally processed fruits and vegetables by
13 students and of maximizing the procurement of New York state fruits and
14 vegetables by purchases directly by sponsors of non-profit school break-
15 fast, lunch or other child feeding programs or by state agencies on
16 behalf of such sponsors of non-profit school breakfast, lunch or other
17 child feeding programs.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
19 the date on which it shall have become a law.
