Colorado § 22-82.9-202 - Legislative declaration.

§ 22-82.9-202. Legislative declaration.

(1) The general assembly finds and declares that:

(a) No Colorado child should experience hunger, and every public school student should benefit from access to healthy, locally procured, and freshly prepared meals during the school day;

(b) Healthy school meals are necessary for all students for effective learning, and Colorado's investment in education should include healthy school meals for all students to support the nourishment students need to achieve academic success;

(c) Access to healthy school meals should not cause stigma or stress for any student seeking an education;

(d) Colorado's healthy school meals program should support Colorado's food systems, including local farmers and ranchers;

(e) Colorado's healthy school meals program must support students' nutrition and provide quality meals to boost the health and well-being of Colorado students;

(f) During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States department of agriculture eased program restrictions to allow free meals to continue to be available to all students universally, ensuring that all students facing hunger had access to food while in school; and

(g) Now that strategies exist to prevent hunger for all students during the school day, it is imperative that the state embrace these strategies to move toward the goal of ending child hunger.

(2) The general assembly finds, therefore, that it is in the best interests of the students of Colorado and their families to enact the healthy school meals for all program to provide free meals in public schools for all students.

(3) The general assembly further declares that for purposes of section 17 of article IX of the state constitution, healthy school meals are an essential component to student learning. Free healthy school meals are an important component of an accountable education program to meet state academic standards and may therefore receive funding from the state education fund created in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution.

Source: Referred 2022: Entire part added, Proposition FF, L. 2022, (HB 22-1414), ch. 509, p. 4278, § 1, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, December 27, 2022. L. 2024: (3) added, (HB 24-1390), ch. 133, p. 478, § 1, effective April 29.