Section 22-82.9-302 - Local school food purchasing program - creation - rules(1) The local school food purchasing program is created in the department to reimburse participating providers for the purchase of Colorado grown, raised, or processed products pursuant to this section.(2)(a) A school district, district charter school, institute charter school, board of cooperative services, the Colorado school for the deaf and the blind, an approved facility school or facility, or a residential child care facility may apply to the department to participate in the purchasing program to receive reimbursement for purchase of Colorado grown, raised, or processed products pursuant to this section.(b)(I) The department shall select participating providers that served fewer than two million one hundred fifty thousand school lunches in the 2023-24 school year. The department shall create a form for participating providers to track and report the Colorado grown, raised, or processed products purchased.(II) The department shall give preference to applicants that:(A) Demonstrate a commitment to local purchasing or food and agricultural education;(B) Have a kitchen with the ability to store, prepare, and serve local food products;(C) Have greater than twenty-five percent of their students eligible for free or reduced price lunch pursuant to the national school lunch program;(D) Served fewer than one million two hundred fifty thousand school lunches in the 2023-24 school year count; and(E) Satisfy any other eligibility requirements established by the department.(III) To the extent possible, in selecting participating providers, the department shall ensure diversity in geographic location and district pupil count.(c) On or before August 1 of the year following the participating provider's application, the participating provider shall track and report to the department for the school year in which it applied, and for the 2023-24 school year, the total amount of Colorado grown, raised, or processed products it purchased for student meals and the total number of lunches that it provided to students.(3)(a) In October 2024, the department shall reimburse each participating provider participating in the purchasing program at least five cents for every school lunch that the participating provider prepared in the 2023-24 school year or a minimum of one thousand dollars, whichever is greater; except that a participating provider is not reimbursed for the amount of value-added processed products that exceeds twenty-five percent of the total of the Colorado grown, raised, or processed products it purchased.(b) Notwithstanding subsection (3)(a) of this section, the maximum amount of reimbursements that may be awarded in any year is five hundred thousand dollars.(4) Reimbursement payments made pursuant to this section accrue to the participating provider's nonprofit school food account.(5)(a) The state board is authorized to adopt rules to implement the purchasing program.(b) The department is authorized to monitor the purchasing program to ensure program integrity.(c) The department shall create, distribute, and collect producer and participating provider surveys required pursuant to section 22-82.9-304.(6) If in any state budget year the department does not expend or encumber the full amount of the appropriation for the purchasing program, up to five percent of the appropriation is available to the department in the next state budget year to pay for the evaluation required pursuant to section 22-82.9-304.Added by 2024 Ch. 133,§ 11, eff. 4/29/2024.