Bill Text: NY A01834 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires public schools to offer plant-based food options in food service.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 30-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-14 - referred to education [A01834 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-A01834-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          1834

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 14, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  RAJKUMAR,  EPSTEIN,  WOERNER, PAULIN, REYES,
          TAYLOR, GLICK, SEAWRIGHT, HYNDMAN,  FALL,  SAYEGH,  WILLIAMS,  WEPRIN,
          STERN,   SIMON,   JACKSON,   KELLES,   McMAHON,  ROSENTHAL,  DINOWITZ,
          DE LOS SANTOS,  BORES,  RAGA,  LEVENBERG,  SIMONE,  SHIMSKY,   HEVESI,
          COLTON,  CLARK, SHRESTHA -- read once and referred to the Committee on
          Education

        AN ACT to amend the education  law,  in  relation  to  requiring  public
          schools to offer plant-based food options in food service

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section  915-a
     2  to read as follows:
     3    §  915-a.  Plant-based  food  options. 1. Upon request by a student or
     4  person in parental relation to the student, every  public  school  shall
     5  offer  the  student a plant-based food option as an alternative to every
     6  meal or snack offered in food service to the  student.  All  the  public
     7  school's  written  material  describing food offerings shall include the
     8  availability of a plant-based food option.  The plant-based food  option
     9  shall  be offered at no additional cost to the student beyond what would
    10  be charged for a comparable non-plant-based food option.
    11    2. The school shall respond in a reasonable manner  and  time  to  any
    12  request  made  under  this  section,  consistent with guidance by school
    13  authorities. The request shall be effective for  every  school  meal  or
    14  snack  in  which the student is reasonably expected to participate. This
    15  section does not preclude the offering of plant-based  food  options  to
    16  students  who have not requested it, and does not preclude an individual
    17  who has requested a plant-based food option from selecting a  non-plant-
    18  based food option.
    19    3. As used in this section:
    20    (a) "Plant-based food option" means food or beverages that are free of
    21  animal  products  and,  as  relates  to the "protein" portion of a meal,

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD02404-01-5
        A. 1834                             2

     1  recognized by the United States Department  of  Agriculture  as  a  meat
     2  alternate for purposes of the national school lunch program.
     3    (b) "Animal product" means meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, eggs, honey,
     4  and any derivative thereof.
     5    4.  In  implementing  this  section, the school and school authorities
     6  shall consult with the  school  district  nutrition  advisory  committee
     7  under section nine hundred eighteen of this article, where applicable.
     8    §  2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to public
     9  school food service beginning with the school year, as  defined  in  the
    10  education law, beginning one year after it shall have become a law.