HB 20-1300 Summary

• Removes the December 1 annual application deadline requirement, allowing school districts, charter schools, boards of cooperative services, and residential child care centers to apply to participate in the school food purchasing program on an ongoing basis.

• Increases the total lunch threshold for program participation from 7 million to 10 million school lunches annually across all participating providers and establishes a new individual provider cap of 2.15 million lunches per year.

• Changes reimbursement structure from variable amounts based on Colorado product spending to a fixed rate of 5 cents per school lunch provided in the previous year, with a 25-percent cap on value-added processed products.

• Adds geographic and district pupil count diversity as a consideration when selecting participating providers and includes serving fewer than 1.25 million lunches as a preference criterion.

• Allows the department to carry over up to 5 percent of unexpended appropriations to the next fiscal year specifically to fund program evaluation costs.