BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center S.B. 282
81R1888 ALB-D By: Nelson
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Nutrition habits are developed early in life and should be instilled in children in various settings throughout the day and not just in school. Texas ranks sixth nationally in the rate of children who are obese or overweight. Seventy percent of overweight children will become overweight adults. Schools are asked to be the primary providers of nutrition education and nutritious foods and their efforts to establish effective programs to improve the health of students through innovative nutrition practices should be recognized and rewarded.
This bill provides for nutrition education in early childhood and after-school environments and to reward achievements in school nutrition and establishes three new grant programs to address this: the Fresh Start Program, which provides grants to pre-kindergarten and Head Start programs to support nutrition education among three-year-olds and four-year-olds; the Community Nutrition Program, which provides grants to community and faith-based programs for children and youth to support nutrition education; and the Healthy Rewards Program, which provides grants to individual schools based on best practices in school nutrition.
As proposed, S.B. 282 requires the Texas Department of Agriculture to develop a grant program for best practices in nutrition education and certain grant programs for nutrition education.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Department of Agriculture in SECTION 1 (Section 38.026, Education Code) and SECTION 2 (Section 33.028, Human Resources Code) of this bill.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 38, Education Code, by adding Section 38.026, as follows:
Sec. 38.026. GRANT PROGRAM FOR BEST PRACTICES IN NUTRITION EDUCATION. (a) Requires the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to develop a program under which TDA awards grants to public school campuses for best practices in nutrition education.
(b) Authorizes TDA to solicit and accept gifts, grants, and donations from any public or private source for the purposes of this section.
(c) Authorizes TDA to adopt rules as necessary to administer a grant program established under this section.
SECTION 2. Amends Chapter 33, Human Resources Code, by adding Section 33.028, as follows:
Sec. 33.028. GRANT PROGRAMS FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION. (a) Requires TDA to develop a program under which TDA awards grants to participants in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, Head Start program, or other early childhood education programs to operate nutrition education programs for children who are at least three years of age but younger than five years of age, and community and faith-based initiatives that provide recreational, social, volunteer, leadership, mentoring, or developmental programs to incorporate nutrition education into programs provided for children younger than 19 years of age.
(b) Authorizes TDA to solicit and accept gifts, grants, and donations from any public or private source for the purposes of this section.
(c) Authorizes TDA to adopt rules as necessary to administer the grant programs established under this section.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2009.