Farm to School Program.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to ensure that the nutrition levels of meals served to schoolage children pursuant to the federal National School Lunch Act be of the highest quality and greatest nutritional value possible. This bill would establish the Farm to School Program within the Department of Food and Agriculture, to provide for the allocation of grants and technical assistance to school districts and county offices of education for specified purposes, including serving healthy meals in school cafeterias. The bill would authorize the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to distribute grants of up to $5,000 per schoolsite to eligible school districts and county offices of education for specified purposes, including, among others, food literacy education. The bill would require a school district or county office of education that receives a grant pursuant to those provisions to comply with specified reporting requirements. The bill would require the secretary to convene an interagency working group on increasing the provision of fresh and nutritious school meals to pupils that includes representatives of the Department of Food and Agriculture, the State Department of Education, and the State Department of Public Health. The bill would make the implementation of the Farm to School Program contingent upon appropriation by the Legislature for those purposes.