BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1321
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1321 (Ting)
As Amended June 1, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Agriculture |7-1 |Perea, Cooper, Dodd, |Mathis |
| | |Eggman, Irwin, | |
| | |Quirk, Salas | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |12-1 |Gomez, Bonta, |Bigelow |
| | |Calderon, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Establishes the Nutrition Incentive Matching Grant
(NIMG) Program in the Office of Farm to Fork (OF2F), creates a
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NIMG account and requires OF2F to establish minimum standards,
funding schedules and grant procedures for the NIMG program. This
bill directs the OF2F to solicit grant proposals, score, and award
grant funds as specified, and establish standards, funding
schedules, and procedures for awarding grants in consultation with
the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This bill
also establishes standards for prioritizing grants within the
state.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes OF2F within the California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA), to work with various entities involved in
promoting food access, and to increase the amount of
agricultural products available to schools and underserved
communities in the state.
2)Requires OF2F to identify urban and rural communities that lack
access to healthy food, and to coordinate with local, state, and
federal agencies to promote and increase awareness of programs
that promote greater food access.
3)Creates the Farm to Fork Account in the CDFA Fund consisting of
money made available from federal, state, industry, and other
sources, and would continuously appropriate the money deposited
in the account to carry out the purposes of OF2F.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW:
1)Establishes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), formerly the food stamp program, administered by USDA,
which imposes specified rules on specified program participants
and limits benefits based on those rules.
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2)Establishes state grants for programs that supplement nutrition
benefits that are spent on products at farmers' markets, based
upon specified criteria.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill will likely have significant General Fund
(GF) costs to CDFA to establish the program, apply for matching
grants, solicit proposals, grant funds, and oversee compliance
among grant recipients, though the actual amount will depend on
the eventual funding and grant applications.
Furthermore, this bill has likely, though unknown, initial
start-up GF costs, perhaps as high as $2.5 million, to fund grants
and apply for the federal match, some or all of which may be
repaid with matching funds from grant recipients. Initial funding
could be by direct appropriation or included in the budget;
however, there is no source of proposed funding currently in the
bill.
COMMENTS: The California Market Match (MM) program was launched
in 2009 to encourage low-income families receiving benefits
through SNAP to purchase fresh, locally-grown fruits and
vegetables at farmers' markets. The program "matches" or doubles
the amount of benefits these families can spend and has expanded
operations to over 150 farmers' markets across California and
increased the spending power of 37,000 families.
According to the author, strong demand for MM often outstrips
available funding for the program. The 2014 federal Farm Bill
included $100 million in grant funding for programs such as Market
Match that incentivize healthier eating amongst SNAP recipients.
In order to best position local programs to receive these federal
grants, this bill creates a state NIMG Program to apply for
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federal funds and award them to local MM programs with a proven
record of success. Establishing a state framework to oversee
funding of MM programs would leverage state resources to
streamline local program administration, and expand MM programs
across a more equitable cross-section of communities that lack
access to fresh produce.
One of the co-sponsors of this bill, Roots of Change, explained
how they used $1.9 million in CDFA Specialty Crop Block Grant
money, and nearly $300,000 in philanthropic funds from 2009 to
2013, to create the California MM pilot program. The MM pilot
program has expanded market opportunities for specialty crop
farmers. Supporters state that community-based partners operated
in 23 counties to implement MM programs in 150 markets in 2014.
Currently, the incentive match funds used to increase purchasing
power are derived from philanthropic sources only and are
therefore limited in scope. Supporters state the goal of this
bill is to assist the state in leveraging federal dollars to
increase specialty crop sales among low-income Californians.
The author states that California is uniquely positioned to
benefit from greater proliferation of programs such as MM.
California grows over 400 commodities and produces nearly half of
US-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables. There are approximately 700
certified Farmers' Markets and 2,200 certified producers in
California. Furthermore, the author stresses that California has
a persistent poverty problem to solve. Twenty-four percent of
Californians live in poverty and is ranked 50th in the rate of
participation in SNAP. Scaling up MM programs would create an
incentive for more families to utilize their SNAP benefits and
ensure more Californians can afford to eat what is grown locally
Analysis Prepared by:
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Victor Francovich / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084 FN:
0000588