SENATE, No. 531
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
220th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2022 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator M. TERESA RUIZ
District 29 (Essex)
Senator JOSEPH F. VITALE
District 19 (Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senators Turner and Pou
SYNOPSIS
Requires public schools to comply with more stringent school lunch and breakfast nutrition standards adopted by USDA in 2012.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Senate Education Committee on January 12, 2023, with amendments.
An Act concerning school lunch and breakfast nutrition standards and supplementing Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. Child and adolescent obesity has reached epidemic levels in the United States and poor diet combined with the lack of physical activity negatively impacts students’ health and their ability and motivation to learn.
b. In New Jersey, the current obesity rate for children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 17 is 14.8 percent, which is the 28th highest child and adolescent obesity rate in the nation.
c. Over the past 15 years, policymakers have taken significant steps to implement new approaches through the National School Lunch Program and federal School Breakfast Program in order to address child and adolescent obesity.
d. Federally subsided meal programs, which include the National School Lunch and federal School Breakfast Program, are required to have nutrition standards that meet specific dietary guidelines. These guidelines can help prevent chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes.
e. Under the nutrition regulations adopted in July 2012 under the federal “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” public schools were required to reduce the amount of calories, fat, and sodium in school cafeterias and increase offerings of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and nonfat milk to the roughly 32 million students who receive federally subsidized meals.
f. Public schools have worked diligently to overcome operational challenges in the National School Lunch and federal School Breakfast Programs created by meeting sodium, whole grain-rich, and milk requirements and, by 2016, at least 90 percent of schools were compliant in every state.
g. These more stringent nutrition standards have helped to reduce the obesity rate for children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 17.
h. However, the United States Department of Agriculture has recently announced its plans to lower nutrition standards for grains, flavored milks, and sodium in school cafeterias that were part of the regulations adopted in 2012 under the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.”
i. Beginning next school year, schools can request an exemption from the whole grain requirements and delay the sodium mandate and schools will also be able to serve one percent flavored milk instead of nonfat.
j. It is important for public schools in the State to abide by the more stringent nutrition regulations that were adopted in 2012 under the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010” in order for the State to continue to reduce the obesity rate for children and adolescents.
2. a. A public school shall comply with the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program and federal School Breakfast Program adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture, as published in Volume 77, Number 17 of the Federal Register dated January 26, 2012, or any more stringent nutrition standards.
b. All reimbursable meals under the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program shall comply with the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program and federal School Breakfast Program adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture, as published in Volume 77, Number 17 of the Federal Register dated January 26, 2012, or any more stringent nutrition standards.
3. This act shall take effect immediately 1and shall first apply to the 2024-2025 school year1.