May 23, 2017 — Below you will find an excerpt from SB 725, the bill that recently passed the Texas House and Senate. Make no mistake, this is a good bill, and it is well-intentioned. This bill is surely written with the goal of preventing both hunger and food waste. The problem I now have with this bill is that with the removal of Section 3 by amendment, this bill no longer addresses Lunch Shaming. Section 3 was the portion of the bill that included the language from HB 2159, the anti-lunch shaming bill introduced by Rep. Giddings.

Stripping Section 3 from this bill really weakened it, I am referring specifically to (b) where is states "school district or open-enrollment charter school may allow a campus to elect to donate food", legally, the word "may" means that schools and districts can continue business as usual, they need not make ANY CHANGES AT ALL! Will some districts use this bill for good, no doubt, will others decide that this is too much of a hassle, probably, leaving the door open for lunch shaming. I find that unacceptable. Hunger is one thing, LUNCH SHAMING is a whole different animal, and thus it needs to be PROPERLY addressed.

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"Sec.A33.907. DONATION OF FOOD.

(a) In this section:

(1) "Donate" has the meaning assigned by Section 76.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.

(2) "Nonprofit organization" has the meaning assigned by Section 76.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.

(b) school district or open-enrollment charter school may allow a campus to elect to donate food to a nonprofit organization through an official of the nonprofit organization who is directly affiliated with the campus, including a teacher, counselor, or parent of a student enrolled at the campus. The donated food may be received, stored, and distributed on the campus. Food donated by the campus may include:

(1) surplus food prepared for breakfast, lunch, or dinner meals or a snack to be served at the campus cafeteria, subject to any applicable local, state, and federal requirements; or

(2) food donated to the campus as the result of a food drive or similar event.

(c) The type of food donated under this section may include:

(1) packaged or unpackaged unserved food;

(2) packaged served food if the packaging is in good condition;

(3) whole, uncut produce;

(4) wrapped raw produce; and

(5) unpeeled fruit required to be peeled before consumption.

(d) Food donated under this section to a nonprofit organization may be distributed at the campus at any time. Campus employees may assist in preparing and distributing the food as volunteers for the nonprofit organization.

(e) Under this program A school district or open-enrollment charter school may adopt a policy under which the district or charter school provides food at no cost to a student for breakfast, lunch, or dinner meals or a snack if the student is unable to purchase breakfast, lunch, or dinner meals or a snack.

(f) The commissioner may adopt rules as necessary to implement this section."

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There are still two bills that contain language from HB 2159, HB 367 and SB 1696. Please ask your legislators to support and vote YES on those bills. Without your support these measures will almost certainly fail, at least the portions written to prevent lunch shaming. As I write this there are no doubt forces at work with the intent of stripping any and all of the language related to HB 2159 from these two remaining bills.

Our actions over the next week will determine whether Texas becomes the second state to ban lunch shaming, or continues shaming preschool children as young as four. Share, tweet, email, post, sign, do whatever it takes to spread the word, let the Texas legislature know that we will no longer stand for children to be shamed in Texas.

This is our goal - #ShameFreeTX let's agree to accept nothing less!

https://www.change.org/p/end-lunch-shaming-in-texas-tell-the-texas-legislature-to-vote-yes-on-hb-367-and-sb-1696/u/20345378?utm_medium=email&utm_source=75207&utm_campaign=petition_update&sfmc_tk=0f7L5d1xhimzwOWBZUmLLrK0QD2996DDbWN9m6yppPz2YCztboIHCN3FvBkGpr%2fV