BILL NUMBER: SB 48 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 12, 2007
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 25, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 16, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 1, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 18, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Senator Alquist
(Coauthors: Senators Kuehl and Ridley-Thomas)
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Solorio)
JANUARY 3, 2007
An act to add and repeal Chapter 19 (commencing with Section
50899) of Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to community development.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 48, as amended, Alquist. Community development: healthy food
choices.
Existing law charges the Department of Housing and Community
Development with the administration of various programs that
facilitate community development, including the Community Development
Block Grant Program. Existing law also requires the State Department
of Public Health to develop a "Healthy Food Purchase" pilot program
and to establish and implement a "5 A Day--For Better Health" program
to promote consumption of fruit and vegetables.
This bill would require the State Department of Public Health,
until January 1, 2015, in partnership with other programs and
services within the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, and
to the extent funds are appropriated, to establish the "Healthy Food
Retail Innovations Fund" to provide residents of underserved
communities with retail food markets that would offer high quality
fruit, vegetables, and other healthy foods and encourage retail
innovation. The bill would also require the department to provide
grants and loans on a competitive basis for land acquisition,
business plan development, feasability studies, refrigeration units,
outside technical assistance, and other startup costs. It would also
require the department to report to the Legislature annually, as
specified, on projects funded through this program.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 19 (commencing with Section 50899) is added to
Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:
CHAPTER 19. ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOOD ACT
50899. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Access
to Healthy Food Act.
50899.1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Increasing access to retail food markets is an important
strategy for improving the nutritional health and economic vitality
of low-income communities by ensuring an accessible supply of healthy
food.
(b) Community food assessments conducted in California have
demonstrated that residents of low-income communities often have
inadequate access to high quality fruits, vegetables, and other
healthy food.
(c) California has the second highest rate of overweight and
low-income children in the nation.
(d) According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
over 20 percent of California adults are overweight compared to 1991
when less than 10 percent of California adults were overweight.
(e) The growing epidemic of overweight individuals is due to poor
diet and physical inactivity, putting growing numbers of Californians
at risk for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and
cancer.
(f) Diseases related to poor nutrition and physical inactivity are
the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.
These diseases account for 28 percent of preventable deaths each
year, which is more than AIDS, violence, car crashes, alcohol, and
drugs combined.
(g) Obesity costs California an estimated twenty-eight billion
dollars ($28,000,000,000) a year in medical costs and lost
productivity.
(h) While individuals make choices about what they eat, these
choices are affected by the availability of food in their community.
Sales of fruit and vegetables can be increased by improving community
access to retail grocery stores, helping corner stores and other
small stores sell fruit and vegetables, starting and sustaining
farmers' markets, and other innovative means to improve community
access to places for purchasing fruit, vegetables, and other healthy
foods. Studies have shown that access to healthy food increases fruit
and vegetable consumption.
(i) Retail grocery stores are important economic anchors in
communities, generating jobs, recycling money back into the local
economy, and creating opportunities for other small and large
businesses.
(j) Improving the availability, quality, and prices of food in
existing small stores can improve local economic development by
building upon existing community resources, and strengthening
relationships between local merchants and residents.
(k) Farmers' markets can help support farmers and serve as small
business incubators where local residents can sell products such as
baked goods or nonfood items.
50899.2. For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions
apply:
(a) "Department" means the State Department of Public Health.
(b) "Retail food market" means a for-profit or not-for-profit
retailer that will increase access to high quality fruit, vegetables,
and other healthy food.
(c) "Underserved community" means a community in which existing
retail food markets are inadequate to serve the healthy food needs of
residents and that meets one of the following criteria:
(1) In metropolitan statistical areas, the median family income is
less than 80 percent of the area median family income.
(2) In nonmetropolitan statistical areas, the median family income
is less than 80 percent of the statewide median family income.
(3) Is adjacent to a census tract that meets the income criteria
described in paragraph (1) or (2).
50899.3. (a) To the extent funds are available, the department
shall establish, in partnership with other related programs and
services within the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, a
grant and loan program for the purpose of providing residents of
underserved communities with retail food markets that will offer high
quality fruit and vegetables. Eligible projects include, but are not
limited to, projects to encourage development or revitalization of
retail grocery stores or farmers' markets, improve or increase
healthy food options available at existing small markets, or create
or support retail market or fruit and vegetable distribution
innovations that meet the intent of this section. A restaurant is not
an eligible project for purposes of this section. The department
shall provide grants and loans on a competitive, one-time basis, for
acquisition of land, refrigeration units, and other equipment,
construction, workforce development and training expenses, outside
technical assistance, feasibility studies, business plan costs, and
the rehabilitation of land improvements. Grants and loans shall not
be used to pay operating costs. Feasibility studies shall be eligible
for funding only if there is evidence that the study will gather
important new information and is likely to result in a retail food
market or fruit and vegetable innovation project. To the extent
possible, the department, in partnership with other related programs
and services within the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency,
and the California Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC program) shall provide technical assistance to grant
and loan recipients.
(b) An applicant for the grants and loans under this chapter may
be a for-profit business enterprise, including, but not
limited to, a corporation, limited liability company, sole
proprietor, cooperative, or partnership; nonprofit
community development entity, a nonprofit organization
; , or a governmental entity.
(c) To be eligible for a grant or loan under this chapter, an
applicant shall serve facilitate projects in
an underserved community in which the proposed retail food or
fruit and vegetable innovation market project will improve, increase,
or preserve retail access to high quality fruit, vegetables, and
other healthy food for low-income residents of the community, and
shall meet all of the criteria listed in subdivision (d).
(d) The department, in partnership with other related programs and
services within the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency,
shall rate and rank applicants by the following priority-ordered
criteria:
(1) The income level of the community and the degree to which the
community is underserved by retail food markets.
(2) The degree to which the project will improve, increase, or
preserve retail access to high quality, culturally appropriate,
fruit, vegetables, and other healthy food for the low-income
residents of the underserved community.
(3) The capacity of the applicant to successfully complete the
project and the likelihood that the project will be economically
self-sustaining.
(4) The degree to which the underserved community supports the
project. This may be demonstrated through letters of support from
local community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, civic
organizations, or local community members.
(5) The degree to which the project will have a positive economic
impact on the underserved community. Applicants who demonstrate a
commitment to strong local hiring practices shall receive additional
consideration.
(6) Other criteria the department may determine and that are
consistent with the purposes of this chapter.
(e) The funded retail food market should primarily sell groceries,
produce, meat, baked goods, and dairy products to the general
public. The department shall establish alternate requirements
applicable to farmers' markets and to other grant or loan recipients
that primarily sell produce.
(f) It is the Legislature's intent that funds described in this
section be used to leverage other funding including, but not limited
to, workforce development funds, New Markets Tax Credits, incentives
available to enterprise zones, and funding from financial
institutions under the federal Community Reinvestment Act (12 U.S.C.
Sec. 2901).
(g) The department shall report to the Legislature annually on any
projects funded through this program by describing outcome data,
including fruit and vegetable sales data, and describing the most
promising healthy food retailing innovations. The department may
fulfill this requirement by including this information in any other
annual report that the department provides to the Legislature.
50899.4. (a) There is hereby established in the State Treasury
the Healthy Food Retail Innovations Fund, into which funds
appropriated by the Legislature shall be deposited and made available
to the department for the purposes of this chapter.
(b) The department shall implement this chapter only to the extent
that funds are appropriated for that purpose. The department may
contract with a qualified third-party, nonprofit organization to
fulfill the obligations described in subdivisions (d) to (g),
inclusive, of Section 50899.3.
50899.5. This chapter shall remain in effect only until January
1, 2015, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2015, deletes or extends
that date.