BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING


          AB  
          1321 (Ting)


          As Amended  June 1, 2015


          Majority vote


           ------------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |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          |                     |
          |                |      |                     |                     |
          |                |      |                     |                     |
           ------------------------------------------------------------------- 


          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