What's happening
This bill allows school food authorities to count New York-sourced food purchases for breakfast and snack programs toward state subsidy eligibility.
Why it matters
Expands incentive eligibility. by allowing schools to count New York-sourced food purchases for breakfast and snack programs—not just lunch—toward the 30% local food threshold needed for state subsidies, making it easier for schools to qualify.
Encourages broader local food purchasing. across all meal programs, likely increasing demand for New York farmers, producers, and processors, and supporting the state’s agricultural economy.
Streamlines reporting and certification. requirements, so schools can include breakfast, snack, and lunch purchases in their applications for the subsidy, reducing administrative complexity and potentially increasing participation.
Aims to improve student nutrition. by incentivizing more schools to serve fresher, locally sourced foods throughout the entire school day, not just at lunch.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Count Breakfast for Farm Subsidies
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Referred to education
- Print number 591a
- Amend and recommit to finance
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to education
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Count Breakfasts Toward Farm Subsidy
In Assembly Committee · Education · Sponsor Karen McMahon
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
591--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by Sens. HINCHEY, ADDABBO, BAILEY, BORRELLO, BROUK, CLEARE, FAHY, GALLIVAN, JACKSON, MYRIE, ROLISON, SKOUFIS, WEBB -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education -- reported favorably from said committee and committed to the Committee on Finance -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend chapter 537 of the laws of 1976, relating to paid, free and reduced price breakfast for eligible pupils in certain school districts, in relation to purchases of food products from New York state farmers, growers, producers or processors
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivisions b and c of section 5 of chapter 537 of the laws of 1976, relating to paid, free and reduced price breakfast for eligible pupils in certain school districts, subdivision b as amended by section 32-a of part A of chapter 56 of the laws of 2024 and subdivision c as amended by section 22-b of part A of chapter 56 of the laws of 2022, are amended to read as follows:
b. Notwithstanding any monetary limitations with respect to school lunch programs contained in any law or regulation, for school lunch meals served in the school year commencing July 1, 2022 and each July 1 thereafter, a school food authority shall be eligible for a State subsidy equal to $0.1901 per free and paid school lunch meal, and $0.0519 per reduced-price lunch meal, for any school lunch meal served by such school food authority; provided that the school food authority certifies to the Department of Agriculture and Markets through the application submitted pursuant to subdivision c of this section that such food authority has purchased at least thirty percent of its total cost of food products for its school lunch service program from New York state farmers, growers, producers or processors in the preceding school year.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00594-04-5
Commencing July 1, 2025, and each July 1 thereafter, a school food authority shall be allowed to attribute moneys spent on purchases of food products from New York state farmers, growers, producers or processors made for its school breakfast or snack programs to the thirty percent of costs for school breakfast and lunch service programs.
c. The Department of Agriculture and Markets in cooperation with the State Education Department, shall develop an application for school food authorities to seek an additional State subsidy pursuant to this section in a timeline and format prescribed by the commissioner of agriculture and markets. Such application shall include, but not be limited to, documentation demonstrating the school food authority's total food purchases for its school breakfast, snack, and lunch service program, and documentation demonstrating its total food purchases and percentages for such program, permitted to be counted under this section, from New York State farmers, growers, producers or processors in the preceding school year. The application shall also include an attestation from the school food authority's chief operating officer that it purchased at least thirty percent of its total cost of food products, permitted to be counted under this section, for its school breakfast, snack, and lunch service program from New York State farmers, growers, producers or processors in the preceding school year in order to meet the requirements for this additional State subsidy. School food authorities shall be required to annually apply for this subsidy. After reviewing school food authorities' completed applications for an additional State subsidy pursuant to this section, the Department of Agriculture and Markets shall certify to the State Education Department the school food authorities approved for such additional State subsidy and the State Education Department shall pay such additional State subsidy to such school food authorities.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend chapter 537 of the laws of 1976, relating to paid, free and reduced price breakfast for eligible pupils in certain school districts, in relation to purchases of food products from New York state farmers, growers, producers or processors
Purpose or general idea of bill
The purpose of this legislation is to increase school district partic- ipation in and eligibility for the school lunch reimbursement for purchase of New York farm-fresh products.
Summary of provisions
Section one amends unconsolidated law to authorize schools, commencing July 1, 2025 and every year thereafter, to attribute moneys spent on purchases of food products from New York state farmers, growers, produc- ers or processors made for its school breakfast and snacks programs to the thirty percent of costs required to receive reimbursement for school lunch service programs.
Section two provides the effective date.
Existing law
Currently, schools are eligible to receive an additional reimbursement for school lunches that include at least thirty percent food products from New York state farmers, growers, producers or processors.
Justification
The reimbursement for school lunches was added in 2018 to encourage the purchase of fresh, healthy, and whole or minimally-processed foods to support the health and nutritional well-being of school children while also supporting New York farms. In addition, at a time when dairy farm- ers in New York are struggling, adding this incentive would provide them with much-needed support and give our children access to higher quality products.
This program includes a $10 million appropriation through the State Education Budget. Up to this point, only 49 school districts across the state qualified for the incentive, and upon audit, only 7 school districts were actually approved. This language change will give schools access to this already allocated funding, which has not yet been fully utilized, and significantly expand the benefits of this valuable program to more school.
One of the biggest impediments to qualifying for the incentive is that lunch is the only meat that can be counted toward the 30 percent thresh- old. This means that milk, yogurt, cheese, and fresh fruit served at school breakfast or as snacks do not count. Not only will this bill expand access to healthy, nutritious foods for our school children, it will incentivize school to procure these foods by simplifying the eligi- bility process by covering all their purchasing.
According to Hunger Solutions New York, 4,912 schools across the state offer lunch programs serving over one million students, with 1,562 schools also offering free breakfast to over 500,000 children. We are falling very short of serving these children with healthy, locally grown, and sourced foods. We can make this incentive a win-win for our school children and New York farmers and food products with the addition of breakfast and snacks to that incentive.
Prior legislative history
2019-2020: S7847 EDUCATION / A10320 education
2021-2022: S4315 Referred to Education
2023: S423A referred to Education / A870A referred to Education
2024: S423A referred to Education / A870A referred to Education
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
None to the state.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.