BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: AB 626
AUTHOR: Skinner and Lowenthal
AMENDED: June 25, 2013
HEARING DATE: July 3, 2013
CONSULTANT: Robinson-Taylor
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.
Existing law:
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 United States Department of
Agriculture (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
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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 one-half hour after the end of the
school day.
8.Establishes the After School Education and Safety program
(ASES) 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. Requires an
ASES applicant to certify in their application the inclusion
of a nutritional snack.
9.Establishes the 21st Century High School After School Safety
and Enrichment for Teens program (High School ASSETs) to serve
pupils in high school, 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.
10.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.
AB 626 | Page
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This bill:
After school education programs.
1.Requires that meals provided during the High School ASSETs and
the ASES to conform to specified nutritional standards.
Contract review.
2.Deletes an obsolete option to review a beverage or food
contract at a public hearing by a Child Nutrition and Physical
Activity Advisory Committee for school districts to satisfy
the public hearing requirement prior to entering a contract.
Cafeteria funds.
3.Repeals a school district's authority to do the following
related to its cafeteria fund:
a. Establish one or more revolving accounts
within its cafeteria fund;
b. Transfer, replenish and deposit funds between
the cafeteria fund and a cafeteria revolving account;
and,
c. Make expenditures from the cafeteria fund for
the construction, alteration, or improvement of a
central food processing plant.
4.Modifies the authority for a school district or two or more
school districts' governing boards of identical personnel to
make expenditures from the cafeteria fund to allow for the
purchase and installation of additional preparation, cooking,
or service equipment for a kitchen or central food processing
plant, including necessary alterations incidental to the
installation of the equipment. Grants authority for the lease
or purchase of vehicles used solely in connection with a
kitchen or central food processing plant.
5.Repeals authority for a school district with an average daily
attendance of over 100,000 to spend money from its cafeteria
fund or cafeteria account a share of money agreed upon by a
contract generated from the joint sale of items between the
cafeteria and an associated student body run store.
6.Repeals authority for a school district governing board to
establish and maintain a cafeteria fund reserve for the
purchase, lease or purchase of cafeteria equipment.
District funds vs. cafeteria funds.
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7.Removes the cost of cafeteria equipment from a charge against
district funds and instead requires the cost of the lease or
purchase of cafeteria equipment and of vending machines and
their installation and housing to be charged against cafeteria
funds.
8.Changes from cafeteria funds to district funds, the source
that may be used for the lease or purchase of cafeteria
equipment for a kitchen or central food processing plant, and
vending machines and their installation and housing.
9.Reduces from within five years, to the same fiscal year, the
amount of time in which a school district governing board may
reimburse school district funds from cafeteria funds.
10.Limits the authority of school districts to approve
reimbursement for vending machines to situations where 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; or,
b. The vending machines sell only food, or
beverages, or both, that comply with state and federal
competitive food laws and regulations.
11.Changes from district funds to cafeteria funds, the source
that is permitted to be used for maintenance of the kitchen
facilities, equipment, telephone charges, water, drinking
water, electricity, gas, coal, wood, fuel, oil, and garbage
disposal related to food service and delivery. Adds the
condition that the school district complies with all
applicable state and federal laws and regulations.
12.Repeals the authority of a school district governing board to
make the cost of the construction, alteration, or improvement
of a central food processing plant and the installation of
additional cafeteria equipment a charge against cafeteria
funds.
Sale of food in elementary, middle and high schools.
13.Defines "full meal" as a combination of food items that meet
USDA-approved School Breakfast Program or National School
Lunch Program meal pattern requirements.
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14.Clarifies what food items can be sold one-half hour before
school and one-half hour after school at an elementary school,
middle school, and high schools.
15.Authorizes the sale of food items to elementary school,
middle school and high school pupils that do not comply with
state and federal nutrition requirements to be sold by anyone
if those sales occur off school premises or on school premises
at least one-half hour after the end of the school day.
16.Prohibits the sale of food items to middle school and high
school pupils that do not comply with state and federal
nutrition requirements during a school-sponsored activity
after the end of the school day.
Beverages sold in elementary schools, middles schools and high
schools.
17.Changes the type of milk allowed to be sold at elementary,
middle and high schools from two-percent to one-percent.
18.Authorizes the sale of beverages to elementary school, middle
school and high school pupils that do not comply with state
and federal nutrition requirements, to be sold by anyone if
those sales occur off school premises or on school premises at
least one-half hour after the end of the school day.
19.Prohibits the sale of beverages to middle school and high
school pupils that do not comply with state and federal
nutrition requirements during a school-sponsored activity
after the end of the school day.
20.Deletes an obsolete provision that requires at least 50
percent of all beverages sold from one-half hour before the
start of the school day until one-half hour after the end of
the school day to meet specified beverage standards.
Trans-fat.
21.Expands the existing restrictions on the sale of food
containing artificial trans fat to clarify that the standards
apply to all food sold, not only food sold through a vending
machine.
22.Deletes the prohibition on using food containing artificial
trans-fat in the preparation of a food item served to pupils.
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Pilot program.
23.Repeals an obsolete three-year pilot program that was
designed for the purpose of implementing high nutrition
standards and receiving a higher meal reimbursement rate.
24.Repeals the provisions authorizing the Child Nutrition and
Physical Activity Advisory Committee.
Monitoring compliance.
25.Repeals the obsolete authority for the Superintendent of
Public Instruction to monitor school districts for compliance
with nutrition standards and, instead, requires the California
Department of Education (CDE) to monitor compliance in
conformity with USDA's administrative review process, as
published in the Federal Register on January 26, 2012.
26.Repeals an obsolete requirement that CDE monitor the
implementation of nutrition standards and by May 2005 provide
to the Legislature an evaluation of various aspects of the
requirements for nutrition standards.
Miscellaneous.
27.Finds and declares that the provisions of this bill further
the purposes of the ASES.
28.Deletes obsolete code sections.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis, this bill will result in General Fund
(Proposition 98) cost pressure, likely in the hundreds of
thousands to low millions, to backfill school districts for
costs associated with the lease, purchase, or maintenance of
cafeteria equipment. To the extent districts were using
cafeteria fund reserves for this purpose and this bill now
prohibits this use, districts may seek additional funds from the
state.
PRIOR VOTES :
Senate Education: 9-0
Assembly Education: 6- 0
Assembly Health: 18- 1
Assembly Appropriations:15- 2
Assembly Floor: 72- 3
COMMENTS :
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1.Author's statement. 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 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA), some of these
state statutes are confusing, ambiguous, or now insufficient.
According to the author, 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.
The author maintains that this bill will update specific sections
of the California Education Code in order to codify recent federal
requirements. These sections relate to the maintenance and
appropriate use of the cafeteria fund, in which a district's
school food revenues are held, as well as details about
competitive foods sold outside of the formal school meal program.
Simply put, this bill aligns state law with federal regulations to
ensure clarity of interpretation; ease of implementation; and ease
of enforcement by CDE.
2.Obesity and the School Environment. According to a report
produced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ), Schools and
Obesity Prevention: Creating School Environments and Policies to
Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity, schools are
identified as a key setting for public health strategies to lower
or prevent the prevalence of overweight and obese youth. While
the schools alone cannot solve the childhood obesity epidemic, it
also is unlikely that childhood obesity rates can be reversed
without strong school-based policies and programs to support
healthy eating and physical activity. The RWJ report cites that
children spend more time in schools than in any other environment
away from home. More than 48 million students attend 94,000
public elementary, middle, and secondary schools each day, and an
additional 5.4 million students attend 30,000 private schools.
The report sustains that no other institution has as much
continuous and intensive contact and influence on children during
their first two decades of life and that schools have an
unparalleled opportunity to promote children's health by creating
an environment in which children eat healthy foods, engage in
regular physical activity, and learn lifelong skills for healthy
eating and active living.
3.HHFKA. On December 13, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the
HHFKA, which is part of the reauthorization of funding for child
nutrition. The HHFKA reauthorizes funding for federal school meal
and child nutrition programs for five years and includes $4.5
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billion in new funding for these programs over 10 years. In
addition, the HHFKA requires the USDA to make significant
improvements in the nutritional standards of school meals and
provides federal grant funding to support nutrition education and
obesity prevention for low-income children and families.
This bill makes changes to current state laws in order to comply
with the new federal laws and regulations set forth by HHFKA.
4.Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes (SOOO) report on
cafeteria funds. In February 2013, SOOO released a report
entitled: Food Fight: Small Team of State Examiners No Match
for Schools that Divert School Meal Funds. The report charges
school districts are "illegally dipping into student meal
funds, misappropriating millions of dollars intended to feed
California's poorest children." Specifically, the report
states: CDE "has ordered eight districts to repay nearly $170
million to student meal programs. Perhaps more troubling,
department officials candidly acknowledge they have no idea
how big the problem may be and fear they may have uncovered
only a hint of the ongoing abuse?" Furthermore, SOOO states
California must pay the federal government if funding cannot
be recouped. As highlighted by the report, "if the state
fails to force repayment of misappropriations or refunds due
from food service accounts, the federal government collects
the unpaid amount from CDE. Over the past two decades, CDE
has had to pay the USDA more than $3 million that it could not
recoup from food service accounts. Those bad debts often
involved agencies, such as child or adult care centers, which
had gone out of business."
Likewise, SOOO identified the following state statutes that
were in conflict with federal law but have remained on the
books. Existing law permits cafeteria fund revenue sharing
with associated student bodies. Federal regulations no longer
permit such revenue sharing with student groups. This bill
repeals this statute in accordance with the HHFKA. Current
law authorizes districts to establish cafeteria funds for
equipment with reserves from their meal programs. The USDA
does not recognize such accounts and strictly limits cafeteria
fund surpluses to three months average expenditures of the
program. This bill repeals this state law.
5.Double Referral. This bill was heard in Senate Education
Committee, and was approved on a 9-0 vote.
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6.Related legislation.
a. SB 464 (Jackson) establishes nutrition and physical
activity standards for early childhood education, infant
care, and after school programs. SB 464 is currently in
the Senate Education Committee.
b. SB 302 (Canella) makes various changes related to
the oversight of school district's cafeteria funds. SB
302 is scheduled to be heard before the Assembly
Appropriations Committee on July 3, 2013.
7.Prior 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
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beverages sold in elementary and middle schools, and
creates a pilot program for high schools and middle
schools to voluntarily adopt nutrition standards.
8.Support. The CDE, sponsor of this bill, the California School
Nutrition Association, and the Los Angeles County Office of
Education state this bill will align state law with federal
laws and regulations set forth by HHFKA. The CDE writes that
improving child nutrition is one of the focal points of the
HHFKA, which is especially relevant because one in three
children is now considered overweight or obese. California
Food Policy Advocates write in support 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. This bill
will update sections of the California Education Code to
codify recent federal requirements.
9.Technical Amendment. AB 86 (Committee on Budget) of 2013, an
education trailer bill, repeals two provisions that are also
repealed in this bill, Education Code Sections 38092 and
38102. The author wishes to delete the reference to the
repeals in this bill.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION :
Support: California Department of Education (sponsor)
Aspiranet
California Food Policy Advocates
California Optometric Association
California School Nutrition Association
California State Parent Teacher Association
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Oppose: None received.
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