Amendment #24 to H3862

Student Nutrition

Mr. Vargas of Haverhill moves to amend the bill by adding the following section:

SECTION XXXX. Section 1C of Chapter 69 of the General Law, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the subsection (d) the following subsection:

(e)  School districts and individual schools with a minimum identified student percentage set by the department shall be required to elect and implement the federal Community Eligibility Provision or Provision 2 to provide universal free school breakfast and lunch to all students. This provision may be waived if (i) the district is able to justify to the department that implementation shall incur financial hardships to the district; (ii) the district school board votes before the first of the month of the deadline set by the United States Department of Agriculture, under 42 USC 1759a, to elect the Community Eligibility Provision for the following school year to not participate in one of the federal options, or (iii) the department determines that the school district and/or individual schools no longer have the requisite qualifying percentage. A school nutrition director or designee shall be required to attend at least one training by the department to learn about community eligibility provision available to said district before the vote taken by the school committee. For purposes of this section, the minimum identified student percentage set by the department, under subsection (a) shall be no higher than the rate defined in 7 C.F.R . 245.9(f)(3)(i).