10.21.2015 On Sunday, October 11, the 2015 legislative session concluded with action by the Governor on several bills of interest to anti-hunger, health, and anti-poverty advocates. This has proven to be a challenging legislative session with the failed passage of several key nutrition bills, including those sponsored by CFPA and introduced by several partner organizations. Though the legislature and Governor failed to act on important nutrition issues in this session, CFPA will persist in its efforts to see these issues resolved.
CFPA’s 2015 State Legislative Agenda link
CFPA is committed to advancing the solutions set forth in AB 1240, which would improve low-income students’access to school breakfast by expanding “after-the-bell” breakfast models. We will continue to pursue the goals of AB 292, to ensure that students have enough time to eat school lunch. We remain optimistic about opportunities to address these issues in our effort to support the health and well-being of California’s children.
Three bills of interest that CFPA supported were signed into law by the Governor: AB 496 (Rendon), which provides funding to school districts to ensure students have access to free, fresh drinking water; AB 1321 (Ting), which establishes the Nutrition Incentive Matching Grant Program; and SB 708 (Mendoza), which provides improvements to free and reduced-price school meal applications.
While the 2015-16 state budget continues to reflect Governor Brown’s commitment to austerity, we commend the Governor for his commitment to the creation of a California EITC to assist the state’s lowest-income workers and for the expansion of Medi-Cal coverage to low-income immigrant children. Both are important steps toward ensuring the overall health and well-being of all Californians. However, we must continue to push for a state budget that does more for the millions of Californians who continue to live in poverty and struggle with food insecurity.
We appreciate the work of all the diverse stakeholders who supported CFPA’s legislative efforts, and applaud the successes of our partners. We will continue working together to identify policy solutions that improve the health and wellbeing of low-income Californians by increasing their access to nutritious, affordable food. Stay tuned for more!
Questions? Contact Tracey Patterson at tracey@cfpa.net or 510.433.1122 ext 101.
