Increases the state subsidy for school lunch meals

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Michelle Hinchey says this is needed

The Farm to School incentive program provides additional per- lunch meal reimbursement to schools that procure at least 30% of their lunch meal products from New York farmers. This promotes local purchasing, helps farmers expand their markets, and ensures our students have fresh, high quality local food. However, participation in this program remains far too low at just 83 out of 4,400 schools as of 2026. The State regularly appropriates around $10M annually for this initiative, but the actual payout has been around $3M maximum due to challenges participating in the program. This includes outdated rules for calculating eligibility, reimbursement rates that have not kept up with food inflation, and a single reimbursement rate that discourages purchasing additional products once a school hits the minimum threshold. This bill makes several changes to the program intended to increase participation, in order to provide our students access to local food, help our farmers find new institutional purchasers, and ensure the State actually expends closer to the regular $10M appropriation, including: Expanding the eligibility calculation to include all food purchases, not just lunch. When schools purchase food, they do not necessarily purchase separate items per meal. For example a school that buys apples is not likely to invoice their lunch apples separately from breakfast or snack apples. But since only lunch purchases are calculated towards the 30% threshold, this makes it onerous for schools to track their spending in a way that allows them to seek eligibility. Including all purchases in the eligibility calculation will simplify this process. Increasing the per-meal reimbursement from 19 cents to at least 26 cents. Base reimbursement has not been updated since the program began in 2018. Food procurement costs have far surpassed the value of the payment necessary to incentivize participation. This bill increases the base payment, with ongoing inflation adjustments going forward, to address rising food purchasing costs. Adding tiered reimbursement. Today, schools receive the same 19 cents per lunch meal once deemed eligible whether they procure 30% or 50% of their food from New York farms. For this reason, combined with the stag- nant reimbursement, there is often an incentive for districts to stop seeking New York products once they've hit the minimum eligibility threshold. Tiered reimbursement, with higher payments kicking in at 40% and 50%, will help New York farmers by incentivizing schools to continue aiming higher rather than settling at the minimum number needed to qual- ify. Hold harmless provision. Based on discussions with Agriculture and Markets, there are some currently participating schools that would fall below 30% if all meals are included in the eligibility formula and they do not have time to adjust their purchasing to meet the new system. This bill therefore includes a three-year hold harmless provision that those schools eligible at the time of enactment shall continue to be deemed eligible for the transition period provided they submit any documenta- tion required by Ag and Markets.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.