Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Section 1G of chapter 15 of the General Laws, as most recently amended by section 3 of chapter 71 of the acts of 1993, is hereby further amended by adding the following paragraph:-

The board shall further establish a school breakfast and summer food service outreach program. Said program or elements of said program shall be operated directly through the department or contracted out.

(a) Said program shall be designed to:

(i) increase the participation of low-income children in existing school breakfast programs and secondarily to encourage other schools to start a breakfast program. The target of said program is to bring the participation level of children who qualify for free or reduced price breakfasts under federal income eligibility guidelines to at least eighty-five percent of those eligible;

(ii) increase the number of summer food service programs offered across the state, with particular emphasis on needy communities, and to ensure that at least eighty-five percent of the children eligible under federal income guidelines participate in these programs.

(b) The school breakfast related outreach program activities shall include, but not be limited to:

(i) development of an outreach campaign to promote the link between a nutritious breakfast and the ability to learn; to make the school breakfast program attractive to all children; and to create a positive picture of school as a basic source of breakfast for all income groups. The efforts should be particularly targeted toward communities with the highest need and should include outreach to linguistic minorities;

(ii) technical assistance shall be provided and technical assistance materials shall be produced including, but not be limited to, facts and guidelines on United States Department of Agriculture requirements; ideas for increasing participation; ideas for safeguarding confidentiality; ways to involve parents and other members of the community; and suggestions for creative menus; and

(iii) technical assistance shall be provided for the development of new and innovative proposals including a "school breakfast period" during existing school hours in schools in which a majority of children are program eligible, and a universal breakfast program in school systems with eighty percent of the students eligible.

(c) The summer food service related outreach program activities shall include, but not be limited to:

(i) an outreach effort to public schools, public entities and private non-profit agencies which would be eligible to provide the summer food services program. Said outreach shall include information and incentives to encourage eligible organizations to be local sponsors or meal preparation sites for the federal summer food service program;

(ii) ongoing support and technical assistance shall be made available to existing programs year round to ensure that they continue to offer the program and to assist in increasing participation levels;

(iii) reviewing and developing training methods and materials provided however that particular attention be given to providing appropriate training for first time sponsors;

(iv) targeting communities and schools which have the highest percentage of program eligible children and establishing an order of descending priorities based on the percentage of program eligible children; provided, however, that there should be a concerted effort to outreach potential participants who are linguistic minorities; and

(v) establishing start up grants not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars to encourage the participation of first time summer food service sites.

(d) In all activities of this school breakfast and summer food service outreach program, local communities shall be encouraged and assisted in maximizing the use of federal resources.

(e) Said school breakfast and summer food service outreach program shall work to ensure that local programs are carried out in a manner which protects the confidentiality of those children receiving subsidized meals.

(f) The commissioner shall submit a report to the clerk of the house of representatives who shall forward the same to the joint committee on education, arts and humanities on or before December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and ninety-four and on December thirty-first of each year thereafter. The report shall include, but not be limited to: the percentage of eligible children participating in school breakfast programs statewide during the previous school year; the amount of additional federal dollars brought into the state by all school breakfast and summer food service outreach program activities; the number of additional school breakfast and summer food service programs started in the preceding year; and the increase in participation in summer food services and school breakfast programs.