Last night, Governor Gavin Newsom took his final actions for the 2019 legislative season.
Of the more than 2,600 proposed laws that were introduced in the Legislature this year, only 1,042 made their way to his desk for consideration. AB 842 was one of those bills. It arrived, having sailed through the Legislature with unanimous support. Despite this, Newsom vetoed the bill citing fiscal concerns.link
“This bill creates ongoing costs in the low millions of dollars and should be considered in the annual budget process,” Newsom wrote. We are deeply disappointed that the Governor would shift the responsibility of guaranteeing access to meals for California’s low-income public school students. This is the fourth time advocates have attempted these changes through the budget process. Year after year, the funding has never been appropriated. This year, Governor Newsom had an opportunity with AB 842 to prioritize actions and funding to support access to meals for our youngest public school students that he did not take. Next year, we will be looking to the Governor Newsom to make amends.
“While we commend the Governor for his actions this week to expand K-12 student protections, he has undermined his own efforts to protect the health and well-being of our youngest learners by vetoing AB 842,” said Melissa Cannon, Senior Advocate for California Food Policy Advocates. The bill would have expanded California’s longstanding school meal guarantee to low-income children participating in California’s state preschool program and childcare and development programs operated by public schools. The bill would also more adequately compensate eligible preschool and child care providers for serving healthy meals to low-income children.
“While it is unfortunate that the Governor failed to prioritize healthy meals for California’s most vulnerable children, we are confident that this wrong will eventually be made right. There is a reason our state has guaranteed low-income K-12th grade public school students a meal for decades: young children need food to grow, to develop, and to be healthy and meals are a basic resource for student success. We are prepared to continue to advocate this important protection and necessary state funding in the next year,” said Melissa Cannon, Senior Advocate for California Food Policy Advocates.
California Food Policy Advocates would like to thank all of you for your continued support year after year. With your help we made some successful inroads to increasing access to meals for young children. We learned a lot about California’s new Governor and the legislature’s interest in this issue along the way. Thank you for all your contributions – from letters of support, meetings with decision makers, and beyond – thank you for your tireless commitment!
Questions? Contact Melissa Cannon at 209.200.8446, or visit https://nourishca.org/ab842/
