A 1492 New Jersey General Assembly · 2026-2027 Regular Session

Requires Secretary of Agriculture to establish Farm to School Local Food Procurement Reimbursement Grant Program to reimburse school districts for costs expended in sourcing and procuring local foods for students; appropriates $4,500,000.

This bill creates a $4.5 million grant program to reimburse New Jersey school districts for costs incurred when expanding their procurement of locally grown food for students. It directly affects eligible school districts participating in federal meal programs (like National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs), requiring them to submit plans for new or expanded local food sourcing beyond current baseline levels. The program reimburses documented costs for minimally processed local foods (like fruits, vegetables, or grains grown in New Jersey), excluding fluid dairy milk. School districts must implement new policies to increase local food access during school meals or summer programs to qualify for reimbursement.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Jun 8, 2026

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What changed between versions

Technical Review Of Prefiled Bill → Introduced · 4 edits · Jan 13, 2026

MODERATE

This is a procedural transition from committee technical review back to introduced status pending Legislative Counsel review. The sponsor list was significantly reduced from 21 members to 14, an immediate effect clause (Section 9) was added, and a full legislative counsel statement describing the bill's contents was appended. No substantive policy language in the operative text appears to have changed.

SCOPE

The list of sponsoring legislators was reduced from 21 members to 14, dropping Assemblymembers Speight, Quijano, Simmons, Donlon, Singh, Carter, and Calabrese.

TECHNICAL

Section 9 was added providing that the act shall take effect immediately upon passage.

The bill status changed from 'As reported by the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee with technical review' to 'Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel,' indicating the bill reverted to introduced status after committee action.

A legislative counsel statement was added summarizing the bill's provisions, including funding tiers (small districts $10K-$50K, medium $20K-$125K, large $44K-$250K), eligibility requirements, an initial appropriation of $4.5 million, and annual budget requests capped at $4.5 million.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jun 8, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading

lower

May 4, 2026

Committee

Reported and Referred to Assembly Appropriations Committee

lower

Jan 13, 2026

Introduced

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee

lower

3 primary · 18 co-sponsors