SENATE, No. 2167
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator M. TERESA RUIZ
District 29 (Essex and Hudson)
Senator JOSEPH F. VITALE
District 19 (Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senators Turner, Pou, McKnight and Diegnan
SYNOPSIS
Requires public and certain nonpublic schools to comply with breakfast and lunch standards adopted by USDA.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Senate Education Committee on June 5, 2025, 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 1and a nonpublic school participating in the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program1 shall comply 1[, at a minimum,]1 with the 1most stringent1 nutrition standards for 1:
(1) competitive foods sold in schools adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture as published in Volume 81, Number 146 of the Federal Register dated July 26, 2016, and Volume 89, Number 80 of the Federal Register dated April 25, 2024, or any other more stringent nutrition standards adopted at the federal level in the future; and
(2)1 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. 1[If more stringent standards for the National School Lunch Program and federal School Breakfast Program are adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture on or after the date of enactment of P.L. , c. (C. )(pending before the Legislature as this bill), a public school shall comply with those more stringent nutrition standards] and in Volume 89, Number 80 of the Federal Register dated April 25, 2024, or any other more stringent nutrition standards adopted at the federal level in the future.1
b. All reimbursable meals
under the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast
Program shall 1[, at a
minimum,]1
comply with the 1most
stringent1
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 1[If more
stringent standards for the National School Lunch Program and federal School
Breakfast Program are adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture on
or after the date of enactment of P.L. , c. (C. )(pending
before the Legislature as this bill), a public school shall comply with the
more stringent nutrition standards]
and in Volume 89, Number 80 of the Federal Register dated April
25, 2024, or any other more stringent nutrition standards adopted at the
federal level in the future1.
1c.
As used in this section, “competitive foods” means all food and beverage items
sold at school, other than meals served through the United States Department of
Agriculture’s school meal programs on the school campus at any time during the
school day.1
3. This act shall take effect immediately 1[and shall first apply to the 2024-2025 school year]1.