ASSEMBLY, No. 3360

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

216th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED JUNE 9, 2014

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman  PAMELA R. LAMPITT

District 6 (Burlington and Camden)

Assemblyman  CARMELO G. GARCIA

District 33 (Hudson)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires each public middle school and high school to establish a food services advisory committee to consider menu options that reflect students' cultural food preferences.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  

An Act concerning school breakfast and lunch menus and supplementing chapter 33 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes. 

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    a.    The principal of each public middle school and high school shall establish a food services advisory committee to consider and recommend school breakfast and lunch menu options that better reflect the cultural food preferences of the student body.  The committee shall serve in an advisory capacity and make recommendations to the principal.

     b.    Members of the committee shall be selected by the principal and shall include a food services employee, a school administrator, a school nurse, and four students enrolled in the school.

     c.    The committee shall convene a minimum of four times during each school year with no meeting being convened less than two months after the preceding meeting.

     d.    In making its recommendations for new menu options that better reflect the cultural food preferences of the student body, the committee shall also consider: available funding for the school breakfast and school lunch program, equipment, and other issues that may serve to limit food choices; the qualifications of the school's food services employees; and the nutritional value of the new menu options.

     e.    Any new menu options offered by the school shall meet nutritional standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. 

 

     2.    This act shall take effect immediately. 

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill directs the principal of each public middle school and high school to establish a food services advisory committee to consider and recommend school breakfast and lunch menu options that better reflect the cultural food preferences of the student body.  The committee will serve in an advisory capacity and make recommendations to the principal.

     Under the bill, members of the committee will be selected by the principal and will include a food services employee, a school administrator, a school nurse, and four students enrolled in the school.

     The bill directs members of the committee to also consider: available funding, equipment, and other issues that may serve to limit food choices; the qualifications of the school's food services employees; and the nutritional value of the new menu options.  Finally, the bill provides that any new menu options offered by the school must meet nutritional standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.