Bill > S4701

Introduced Session

This bill would require each school nutrition team that manages or oversees the provision of school lunches to students at a school in the State, under the National School Lunch Program, to incorporate, as part of the meal offerings that are daily offered to students at the school, during the regular lunch service, at least one type of plant-based meal, in a quantity sufficient to enable the daily selection and receipt of such plant-based meal, throughout the school year, by each student at the school who has formally elected to receive plant-based meals, in accordance with the process set forth in the bill. Under the bill's provisions, any student who is enrolled in a school where school lunch is being offered, under the National School Lunch Program, would be entitled to select and receive a plant-based meal, which is daily offered by the school nutrition team during the regular lunch service, so long as the student, or the student's parent or guardian, has first submitted prior written notice to the school food authority, in a form and manner prescribed thereby, formally electing, on the student's behalf, the right of the student to daily select and receive a plant-based meal. Within 30 days after the receipt of such election notice, the recipient school food authority would be required to provide for and facilitate an increase, by the school nutrition team, in the total quantity of plant-based meals which are daily made available to students as part of the regular lunch service, as necessary to ensure the right and opportunity of all students, who have submitted the requisite election notices pursuant to the bill, to daily select and receive at least one plant-based meal, during that regular lunch service period, throughout the remainder of the school year. A student's right to daily select and receive a plant-based meal, as elected under the bill, would not attach until the requisite 30-day preparation timeframe has fully elapsed. All plant-based meals, provided to electing students under the bill, would be required to satisfy nutritional and dietary standards that have been established, by the United States Department of Agriculture, for school lunches. The bill would provide for the State Department of Agriculture and the State Department of Education to cooperatively monitor, and to individually or cooperatively enforce, ongoing compliance with the bill's provisions. In order to facilitate such compliance monitoring and enforcement, each public school would be required, at the end of each full school year, to annually prepare and submit, to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education, in a form and manner prescribed by each department, a written report identifying: 1) the types of plant-based meals that have been offered to electing students, during the school year, through the regular lunch service; 2) the total number of election notices that were submitted during the school year, on behalf of electing students enrolled at the school, and the total number of such election notices which were fulfilled by the school nutrition team; and 3) the nature of any challenges encountered in implementing the bill's provisions, including, but not limited to, challenges that have served to prevent or hinder the timely or consistent provision of plant-based meals to all electing students, as required by the bill. The bill would further authorize the Secretary of Agriculture and Commissioner of Education, after consultation, to adopt rules and regulations necessary to implement the bill's provisions, and to establish and publish standards, guidelines, strategies, and other informational and educational resources which are designed to facilitate and effectuate the efficient and cost-effective provision, by school nutrition teams, of plant-based meals to students in the State.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Andrew Zwicker (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 10/20/2025)

Official Document