Why it matters
The Advisory Committee’s new advisory report on the 2025 Dietary Guidelines to the federal secretaries of Health, Human Services and Agriculture found that 73 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 and older are overweight or obese and that 38 percent of children and young people aged 12 to 19 are prediabetic. . The National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention have also identified the link between a healthy diet and reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic health conditions.
Leading the way in school nutrition
Children eat the majority of their meals at school, and research shows that healthy school meals result in better school attendance, better academic performance, and better overall health, including reducing cases of long-term chronic diseases. term. California standards already exceed federal rules for food safety in schools, ensuring that children eat less added sugars, sodium and more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
California was the first state to implement a statewide universal meals program for school children, providing all TK-12 public students access to two free meals per school day. In 2023, California also became the first state to codify President Biden’s new federal guidance on school nutrition standards to reduce sugar and salt in school meals, and established a process for California to maintain these standards if another federal jurisdiction adopted lower standards.
Senior Associate Jennifer Siebel Newsom also championed efforts to expand the innovative California Farm to School initiative. California Farm to School works in tandem with Universal School Meals to ensure California students have access to two free, locally sourced, delicious and nutritious school meals. California also participates in the federal SUN Bucks food program which ensures that children in low-income families have adequate nutrition while school is closed for the summer.
Additionally, under Governor Newsom’s leadership, California has:
- A long-standing soda ban on K-12 campuses;
- Restrictions on caffeine at all grade levels, while federal standards allow caffeine in secondary schools;
- Mandatory entrees sold the same day or day after they appear on the menu must meet standards for calories, total fat, and trans fat, while federal standards allow them to be sold without meeting any nutritional standards; And,
- Proposed sugar limit on plant-based milk, which should come into effect in 2025, while federal standards have no sugar limit.
Legislative actions 2024
- AB 2316 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino): Prohibits California schools from serving and selling foods containing synthetic food color additives that have been linked to harmful health effects in children, including cancer, damage to the immune system, neurobehavioral problems and hyperactivity.
- AB 660 by Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks): Standardizes quality and safety date labels on food products to create clarity and consistency and better inform consumers to significantly reduce food waste in the state.
- AB 418 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino): prohibits the manufacture, sale or distribution of any food product in California containing red dye No. 3, titanium dioxide, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil or propyl paraben.
- AB 518 by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland): Improves data collection to increase CalFresh program enrollment.
- AB 1830 by Assembly Member Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno): Requires corn masa and corn masa products to be fortified with folic acid to support women’s health during pregnancy;
- Assembly Member Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-Colton) AB 2033: Demands that campuses of California Community Colleges and California State University, and directs University of California campuses, require that at least one campus food store accepts SNAP/EBT cards; And
- AB 2786 by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland): Establishes a new category of “certified mobile farmers markets” and requires registration of such markets with the Department of Food and Agriculture California (CDFA) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). ).