BILL NUMBER: S591A
SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend chapter 537 of the laws of 1976, relating to paid, free
and reduced price breakfast for eligible pupils in certain school
districts, in relation to purchases of food products from New York state
farmers, growers, producers or processors
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this legislation is to increase school district partic-
ipation in and eligibility for the school lunch reimbursement for
purchase of New York farm-fresh products.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends unconsolidated law to authorize schools, commencing
July 1, 2025 and every year thereafter, to attribute moneys spent on
purchases of food products from New York state farmers, growers, produc-
ers or processors made for its school breakfast and snacks programs to
the thirty percent of costs required to receive reimbursement for school
lunch service programs.
Section two provides the effective date.
 
EXISTING LAW:
Currently, schools are eligible to receive an additional reimbursement
for school lunches that include at least thirty percent food products
from New York state farmers, growers, producers or processors.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The reimbursement for school lunches was added in 2018 to encourage the
purchase of fresh, healthy, and whole or minimally-processed foods to
support the health and nutritional well-being of school children while
also supporting New York farms. In addition, at a time when dairy farm-
ers in New York are struggling, adding this incentive would provide them
with much-needed support and give our children access to higher quality
products.
This program includes a $10 million appropriation through the State
Education Budget. Up to this point, only 49 school districts across the
state qualified for the incentive, and upon audit, only 7 school
districts were actually approved. This language change will give schools
access to this already allocated funding, which has not yet been fully
utilized, and significantly expand the benefits of this valuable program
to more school.
One of the biggest impediments to qualifying for the incentive is that
lunch is the only meat that can be counted toward the 30 percent thresh-
old. This means that milk, yogurt, cheese, and fresh fruit served at
school breakfast or as snacks do not count. Not only will this bill
expand access to healthy, nutritious foods for our school children, it
will incentivize school to procure these foods by simplifying the eligi-
bility process by covering all their purchasing.
According to Hunger Solutions New York, 4,912 schools across the state
offer lunch programs serving over one million students, with 1,562
schools also offering free breakfast to over 500,000 children. We are
falling very short of serving these children with healthy, locally
grown, and sourced foods. We can make this incentive a win-win for our
school children and New York farmers and food products with the addition
of breakfast and snacks to that incentive.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2019-2020: S7847 EDUCATION / A10320 education
2021-2022: S4315 Referred to Education
2023: S423A referred to Education / A870A referred to Education
2024: S423A referred to Education / A870A referred to Education
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None to the state.