BILL NUMBER: SB 107 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Alquist
JANUARY 18, 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 107, as introduced, 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 Health Services, to be renamed the State Department of Health
Care Services on July 1, 2007, 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 Department of Food and Agriculture,
until January 1, 2010, in partnership with the State Department of
Health Care Services, 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 on a competitive basis for 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 $21.7 billion a year in
medical costs and lost productivity. Medical care costs associated
with obesity are greater than those associated with both smoking and
problem drinking.
(h) While individuals make choices about what they eat, these
choices are affected by the availability of food in their
environment. 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 Department of Food and Agriculture.
(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 the State Department of Health
Care Services, the "Healthy Food Retail Innovations Fund" 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 of or revitalize retail grocery stores or
farmers' markets, to improve or increase healthy food options
available at existing corner stores or small markets, or other 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 competitive
grants for business plan development, feasibility studies,
refrigeration units, outside technical assistance, and other startup
costs. Grants 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 shall provide
technical assistance to grant recipients.
(b) An applicant for the grants may be a for-profit business
enterprise, including, but not limited to, a corporation, limited
liability company, sole proprietor, cooperative, or partnership; a
nonprofit organization; or governmental entity.
(c) To be eligible for a grant under this chapter, an applicant
shall serve 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. Applicants shall demonstrate that the community supports
the proposed project, that the project will have a positive economic
impact on the surrounding community, that the project is likely to be
successful and economically self-sustaining, and any other criteria
as the department may determine and that are consistent with the
purposes of this chapter.
(d) The department 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 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 widest
possible group of consumers. The department shall establish alternate
requirements applicable to farmers' markets and to other grant
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. The department shall implement this chapter only to the
extent that funds are appropriated for that purpose.
50899.5. This chapter shall remain in effect only until January
1, 2010, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2010, deletes or extends
that date.