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History
- Referred to finance
Full text
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Title of bill
An act to establish an aggregation, storage and distribution of foods produced by local farms to regional schools pilot program
Purpose
This bill would direct the Office of General Services to implement a pilot program that provides warehouse space and technical assistance for the aggregation, storage and distribution of locally grown foods to regional schools serviced through the National School Lunch Program.
Summary of provisions
Section one directs the Office of General Services in consultation with the Department of Agriculture and Markets and the Department of Education to implement a pilot program that dedicates space within at least one warehouse used for distributing foods through the National School Lunch Program for the purpose of aggregating, storing, and distributing locally grown foods to regional schools.
Section two provides for the facilitation of purchase agreements between local producers and regional schools.
Section three requires a public report assessing the participation and sales attained through the pilot program.
Section four establishes the effective date.
Justification
New York's farmers face many obstacles to introducing their goods into new markets. New York state should strive to partner with local producers when state operations offer common sense synergies with local farm businesses. The Office of General Services utilizes refrigerated warehouse space in administering the State's share of the National School Lunch Program which, in addition to reimbursing school districts for reduced cost school lunches, distributes surplus foods purchased by the USDA to regional schools.
On Long Island, OGS partnered with a consortium of local school districts to assist in the sale of thousands of pounds of New York state potatoes for use in school meals. Leveraging further space in these warehouses to aggregate and store in-state agricultural products could further facilitate increased government purchases of New York food.
This bill directs OGS to implement a pilot program in order to replicate the successful relationship demonstrated on Long Island in other regions of the state.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.