A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to reduce child nutrition program food costs by encouraging participation in the north carolina procurement alliance and by appropriating funds for administrative support for the procurement alliance; and to encourage use of the farm to school program and appropriatE funds for child nutrition program equipment to encourage preparation and consumption of locally grown fruits and vegetables, as recommended by the house select committee on childhood obesity.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  The State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction shall work collaboratively with local boards of education and local school administrative units to (i) reduce food costs through increased participation in the North Carolina Procurement Alliance and (ii) increase the use of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables through increased participation in the Farm to School Program.
SECTION 1.(b)  The State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction shall report on their progress on or before November 1, 2013, to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee. 
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) for the 2012‑2013 fiscal year to provide administrative support to the North Carolina Procurement Alliance.
SECTION 3.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of five hundred seventy‑five thousand dollars ($575,000) for the 2012‑2013 fiscal year to provide each local school administrative unit with a sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) to purchase chopping and slicing devices or other equipment that would encourage the purchase by child nutrition programs, and consumption by school children, of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. 
SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2012.