BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 626
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Richard Pan, Chair
AB 626 (Skinner and Lowenthal) - As Amended: April 23, 2013
SUBJECT : School nutrition.
SUMMARY : Makes numerous changes to current law related to
school nutrition, mostly to conform to the federal Healthy
Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA). Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires meals served by the After School Education and Safety
(ASES) Program to conform to the nutrition standards of the
United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) at-risk
afterschool meal component of the federal Child and Adult Care
Food Program (CAFCP) or the National School Lunch Program, as
specified.
2)Removes a requirement that students sell food items in order
for the items to qualify for an exception from nutritional
standards.
3)Requires beverages sold in elementary schools to meet current
standards from one-half hour before the school day until
one-half hour after the school day, rather than regardless of
the time of day, as specified.
4)Prohibits school district governing boards from having
multiple cafeteria funds and revolving accounts and prohibits
these funds from being used in the construction, alteration,
or improvement of a central food processing plant, for the
installation of additional cafeteria equipment for the central
food processing plant, and for the lease or purchase of
vehicles used primarily in connection with the central food
processing plant.
5)Deletes an existing authorization for school districts with an
average daily attendance of over 100,000 to allow an
expenditure from the cafeteria fund a share of money, agreed
upon by a contract, which is generated from the joint sale of
items between the cafeteria and an associated student body
store.
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6)Specifies the cost of providing adequate housing for
cafeterias, including kitchen facilities, is a charge against
the funds of the school district; and, specifies the cost of
the lease or purchase of cafeteria equipment and of vending
machines and their installation and housing is a charge
against cafeteria funds.
7)Requires the governing board to only approve reimbursement for
vending machines if one or both of the following apply:
a) The vending machines are owned and operated by the
school food services department, sell meals that qualify
for federal meal program reimbursement, and are equipped
with appropriate point of service meal counting software;
and,
b) The vending machines sell food and beverages that comply
with state and federal competitive food laws and
regulations.
8)Prohibits governing boards from maintaining a cafeteria fund
reserve for purchase, lease, maintenance, or replacement of
cafeteria equipment.
9)Deletes the authorization for the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to monitor school districts for compliance
with school nutrition standards; deletes the requirement that
each school district monitored, report to the SPI in the
coordinated review effort regarding the extent to which it has
complied; deletes the requirement that noncompliant school
districts adopt a corrective action plan; and, instead,
specifies that compliance with the school nutrition standards
shall be monitored by the California Department of Education
(CDE) in conformity with the USDA's administrative review
process.
10)Deletes the Linking Education, Activity, and Food (LEAF)
Pilot grant program.
11)Deletes obsolete code sections.
12)Makes numerous technical and clarifying changes.
EXISTING LAW :
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1)Limits the foods that may be sold to students at an
elementary, middle, or high school during the school day to
full meals and individually sold portions of nuts, nut
butters, seeds, eggs, cheese packaged for individual sale,
fruit, vegetables that have not been deep fried, and legumes.
Establishes nutrition standards for individually sold food
portions sold in schools, as specified.
2)Regardless of the time of day, limits the beverages allowed to
be sold to students at an elementary school to unsweetened
fruit- or vegetable-based drinks, as specified; unsweetened
drinking water; or milk and milk substitutes, as specified.
3)From one-half hour before the start of the school day until
one-half hour after the end of the school day, limits the
beverages that may be sold to students at a middle, junior, or
high school to unsweetened fruit- or vegetable-based drinks,
as specified; unsweetened drinking water; milk and milk
substitutes, as specified; or electrolyte replacement
beverages, as specified.
4)Prohibits a school or school district, from one-half hour
before until one-half hour after school hours, from selling
food containing artificial trans fat, as specified, unless the
food is provided as part of a USDA meal program.
5)Creates an exception from the requirements in 1) and 2) above
for elementary schools' fundraising events, provided that the
food items are sold by pupils of the school and the sale takes
place either away from school premises or at least one-half
hour after the end of the school day.
6)Creates an exception from the requirement in 1) above for
middle, junior, or high schools where: a) the sale of food
items takes place off of and away from school premises; b) the
sale of food items takes place on school premises at least
one-half hour after the end of the school day; or c) the sale
of food items occurs during a school-sponsored pupil activity
after the end of the school day.
7)Creates an exception from the requirement in 3) above for
middle, junior, or high schools where: a) the sale occurs
during a school-sponsored event and takes place at least
one-half hour after the end of the school day; and b) vending
machines, pupil stores, and cafeterias are used later than
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one-half hour after the end of the school day.
8)Establishes the ASES Program to serve pupils in kindergarten
and grades one to nine, inclusive, and requires an entity that
applies to operate a program to agree that snacks made
available by the program conform to the nutrition standards in
1) above.
9)Authorizes the governing board of a school district to
establish cafeterias in the schools under its jurisdiction;
authorizes the moneys received for the sale of food or for any
services performed by the cafeterias to be paid into the
county treasury to the credit of the cafeteria fund of the
particular school district; and creates requirements for
cafeteria funds, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill has not yet been analyzed by a fiscal
committee.
COMMENTS :
1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL . According to the author of this bill,
HHFKA has created a new set of nutritional standards for
elementary, middle, and high schools. The HHFKA also aims at
increasing access for students and improving oversight of
nutritional programs. HHFKA authorizes funding and sets
policy for USDA's core child nutrition programs, which
include: the National School Lunch Program, the School
Breakfast Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program
for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the Summer Food Service
Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
Improving child nutrition is one of the focal points of the
HHFKA. Across the country, schools serve meals on a daily
basis to more than 31 million children. Unfortunately, one
out of every three children is now considered overweight or
obese. HHFKA represents the nation's continued commitment to
provide all children with nutritious food in schools, with an
emphasis on foods that are healthy.
In addition to setting nutritional standards, the HHFKA also
regulates how nutritional programs operate. For example, the
HHFKA sets policies on what expenses are allowable using
cafeteria funds and limits the amount of reserves in cafeteria
funds. The HHFKA also sets improved oversight policies that
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will ensure that students are being provided with nutritious
meals.
The author writes that the intent of this bill is to make
changes to current state laws in order to comply with the new
federal laws and regulations set forth by HHFKA.
2)BACKGROUND . Among its many provisions, the federal HHFKA
requires the USDA to establish nutrition standards for all
foods sold in schools other than foods in the
federally-supported school meals programs, known as
"competitive foods." In February of 2013, the USDA published
a proposed rule "Smart Snacks in School," as the first step in
the process to create national standards. According to the
USDA, the new proposed standards draw on recommendations from
the Institute of Medicine, existing voluntary standards
already implemented by thousands of schools around the
country, and healthy food and beverage offerings already
available in the marketplace.
The proposed USDA regulations are, in part, based on
California's competitive food and beverage laws, which were
passed in 2005. Since then, a number of studies have examined
the impact of California's standards. One study examining the
statewide impact of the nutrition and beverage standards found
that competitive food revenues declined by more than 5% and �
la carte sales declined in 60% of the schools studied;
however, these revenue declines were offset by increased sale
of school meals. As a result, all of the schools studied
experienced an increase in total revenues (including both meal
participation and competitive food and beverage sales)
following adoption of the state standards.
Another study analyzed the effects of a competitive food policy
in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the
statewide California food and beverage standards. The study
found a significantly lower rate of increase in body mass
index (BMI) among fifth graders in LAUSD and, in the rest of
California, a significantly lower rate of increase in BMI
among fifth grade boys and seventh graders overall following
implementation of the district and statewide standards,
respectively.
3)PROVISIONS .
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a) Consistency between elementary, middle, and high
schools . This bill makes minor changes that bring
consistency to the standards for competitive foods sold at
elementary schools and those sold at middle and high
schools. The consequences of these changes are mostly
clarifying. One change expands of a restriction on sugar
content that currently applies to whole grain and dairy
food items (no more than 35% of total weight from
naturally-occurring or added sugar) to also include
individually sold portions of nuts, nut butters, seeds,
eggs, and cheese packaged for individual sale. As these
items are not likely to have such a high sugar content,
this change will have little effect in practice.
b) Beverages sold in elementary schools . Under current
law, regardless of the time of day, drinks in elementary
schools are limited to water, milk, or fruit and vegetable
drinks with no sweetener, as specified. Current law
contains an exception for drinks sold in vending machines
at least half an hour before school or half an hour after
school. This bill deletes that exception, and instead
provides that drink restrictions for elementary schools
only apply from a half hour before the school day to a half
hour after the school day. This is a slight weakening of
the standards restricting the sale of sugar-sweetened
beverages in elementary schools. Is that the author's
intent?
c) Afterschool programs . Federal reimbursement for snacks
served in at-risk afterschool programs has been available
through CACFP since the 1990s. HHFKA expanded federal
reimbursement through this program to also include meals.
Under current state law, ASES Programs must agree that
snacks will conform to the state's current nutrition
standards for competitive foods. However, the law is
silent on meals provided through these programs. This bill
provides that meals served through these programs must
conform to the nutrition standards of the at-risk
afterschool component of CACFP or the National School Lunch
Program.
d) Cafeteria funds . The HHFKA contains a number of
provisions related to school food service accounts and the
use of food service funds. This bill makes changes related
to school cafeteria funds to comply with these provisions.
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4)SUPPORT . In support, California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA)
writes that California has been a national leader in enacting
state laws that strengthen the integrity of the school meal
programs and improve the nutritional quality of foods offered
in schools. In light of the federal regulations recently
enacted by the HHFKA, some of these state statutes are
confusing, ambiguous, or now insufficient. CFPA states that
enacting this bill will ensure that sections of the California
Education Code that relate to the operation of child nutrition
programs are aligned with the HHFKA.
5)DOUBLE REFERRAL . This bill is double referred. It passed the
Assembly Committee on Education with a vote of 6-0 on April
17, 2013.
6)PREVIOUS LEGISLATION .
a) SB 638 (Torlakson), Chapter 380, Statutes of 2006,
requires all snacks served in ASES programs to meet
nutrition standards.
b) SB 12 (Escutia), Chapter 235, Statutes of 2005, sets
nutrition standards for competitive foods sold in schools
outside of federally-funded meal programs.
c) SB 965 (Escutia), Chapter 237, Statutes of 2005, sets
nutrition standards for beverages sold in schools.
d) SB 19 (Escutia), Chapter 913, Statutes of 2001, requires
the reimbursement a school receives for free and
reduced-price meals sold or served to pupils in elementary
or middle schools to be increased to $0.23, establishes
nutrition standards for competitive foods and beverages
sold in elementary and middle schools, and creates a pilot
program for high schools and middle schools to voluntarily
adopt nutrition standards.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson (sponsor)
California Black Health Network
California Chiropractic Association
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California Food Policy Advocates
California Optometric Association
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ben Russell / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097