School Lunch, Food-Safety Bills Start Popping up in State Legislatures

A Republican legislator in New Mexico wants to bail out the state’s school lunch program by using tax money to purchase $1.4 million in locally grown fruits and vegetables, which would then be provided to the schools without charge. State Rep. Jimmie C. Hall of Albuquerque, who is also executive director of the 4-H Development Foundation and Farm and Ranch Operation, came up with the idea. Many school lunch programs have been financially struggling since new federal standards have required menus with more fresh fruit and vegetable offerings. Local fruits and vegetables purchased by the new state program would be available for use by meal programs in school districts, charter schools, and juvenile detention centers throughout New Mexico. The bill also funds a full-time administrator for local produce and allows unspent money to be retained by the program rather than returned to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year. By the third week of January, 41 state legislatures are in session, according to the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures. That number will increase to 44 by the end of the month when, in addition to New Mexico, legislative sessions in Hawaii and Utah will get underway. New Mexico may not be the only state where there could be interest in bailing out cash-strapped local school lunch programs with infusions from state taxpayers. School lunch program directors around the country have said that since federal standards were changed, many local school lunch program budgets have been upside down. Some local school districts have even withdrawn from the National School Lunch Program because of regulations they deemed too onerous. Meanwhile, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, an amendment to the state constitution was pre-filed last Dec. 10 that would add language to that state’s Bill of Rights making it a right of the people “to acquire for their own consumption, farm-produced food directly at the farm with the agreement of the farmer who produced it.”...more