S3403

An Act concerning food banks and supplementing Title 4 of the Revised Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. a. The Secretary of Agriculture shall develop, establish, and implement a food bank funding program to provide consistent, ongoing funding of grants to food banks and organizations operating food banks in the State that provide food to food insecure households in the State.

b. The secretary, in consultation with the Commissioner of Health, shall:

(1) establish a definition of the term “food insecure household;” and

(2) determine annually the total number of food insecure households in the State, the percentage of food insecure households in the State served by individual food banks, and the organization that operates each food bank, if any.

c. Based on the number of food insecure households served by each food bank or each organization through a food bank in the State as a percentage of the total number of food insecure households in the State, the secretary shall determine the amount of funding to allocate as grants to each food bank or organization, as appropriate, from the “Food Insecurity Fund,” established pursuant to section 2 of this act, and subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting.

d. When allocating grant funding pursuant to subsection c. of this section, the secretary shall allocate the amount of grant funding proportionally to the percentage of food insecure households served, with the largest amount of grant funding being allocated to the food banks or organizations serving the highest percentages of food insecure households in the State. The secretary may determine the number of food banks or organizations to receive grant funding based on the amount of available funding.

e. Any food bank or organization receiving grant funding pursuant to this section shall use the moneys only for providing food to food insecure households. A food bank or organization may not use any grant moneys for administrative costs but an individual food bank or organization may use, as determined by the Department of Agriculture, a reasonable percentage of the moneys it receives pursuant to this section, for the costs of distributing food to food insecure households.

f. The department shall annually request funding for the food bank funding program as part of its annual budget request. The department shall provide grants pursuant to this section in an amount up to the balance of the funds in the Food Insecurity Fund in each State fiscal year.

g. The department may solicit and collect donations for the support of the food bank funding program. The department shall deposit in the “Food Insecurity Fund,” established pursuant to section 2 of this act, any monetary donations received for the food bank funding program.

h. The department, in consultation with the State Treasurer and the Commissioner of Health, and pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.610 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt any rules and regulations necessary to implement this act.

2. a. There is established in the Department of Agriculture a special nonlapsing fund to be known as the "Food Insecurity Fund." The fund shall be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture and shall be credited with moneys appropriated by the Legislature for the purposes of this act and any monetary donations received for support of the food bank funding program.

b. Moneys in the fund shall be used by the Department of Agriculture solely for funding grants to food banks or organizations providing food to food insecure households in the State pursuant to section 1 of this act. The Department of Agriculture shall not use any moneys in the fund for administrative costs of the department.

3. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture to develop, establish, and implement a food bank funding program to provide consistent, ongoing funding of grants to food banks and organizations operating food banks in the State that provide food to food insecure households in the State. The bill also directs the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Commissioner of Health, to establish a definition of “food insecure household,” determine annually the food banks or organizations in the State that serve the highest percentage of food insecure households in the State, and allocate funding accordingly. The bill requires the largest amount of funding to be allocated for grants to the food banks or organizations serving the highest percentages of food insecure households. It restricts the use of the grants to food banks and organizations to pay only the costs of the food and food distribution to food insecure households.

The bill establishes in the Department of Agriculture a special nonlapsing fund to be known as the "Food Insecurity Fund," to be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture, and to be credited with moneys appropriated by the Legislature for the food bank funding program and any monetary donations made to support the program. The bill authorizes the Department of Agriculture to solicit and collect donations to support the program and requires any monetary donations to be deposited in the fund. The bill requires the Department of Agriculture to annually request funding for the food bank funding program as part of its annual budget request, and to provide grants up to the balance of the funds in the “Food Insecurity Fund” in each State fiscal year.

Finally, the bill directs the Department of Agriculture, in consultation with the State Treasurer and the Commissioner of Health, to adopt rules and regulations necessary to implement the bill’s requirements.