WHEREAS, the New Paltz Central School District’s Board of Education (“Board”) is committed to maintaining the
fiscal health of the New Paltz Central School District (“District”) and the nutritional health of our students; and

WHEREAS, the Board is in agreement with the overall sentiment of the new USDA standards aimed at aligning
school meals with the latest nutrition science, as well as the importance of serving students in need of free and
reduced price breakfast and lunch; and

WHEREAS, the Board believes in the importance of encouraging students to learn about and adopt healthy eating
habits; and

WHEREAS, all students receiving breakfast or lunch at school are now mandated to take a half-cup of fruit or
vegetables, whether they plan to eat them or not as per the USDA’s Standards for Meals Selected by the Student
(Offer versus Serve); and

WHEREAS, a significant number of our students are choosing to throw away instead of eating fruits or vegetables
they are mandated to take and this was substantiated in the national School Nutrition Association’s 2014 report which stated “A recent study in Public Health and Nutrition found that this mandate to serve results in a nearly
100% increase in wasted fruits and vegetables or $3.8M thrown into the trash each day”; and

WHEREAS, our federal and New York State governments have already implemented an unprecedented number of
new unfunded mandates that have placed significant financial pressure on the District; and

WHEREAS, the District is being forced to involuntarily expend taxpayer money to meet this under-funded program
instead of being permitted to autonomously listen to and balance student needs and tastes; and
WHEREAS, the new USDA requirements are anticipated to cost our food service program an additional $85,000 to
$105,000; and

WHEREAS, the anticipated additional revenue of $0.06 per meal from participating in the program would only
amount to $8,100 per year for the District or less than 10% of the annual cost of the program; and

WHEREAS, the Board is in agreement with the New York State School Boards Association’s statement set forth in
their 2014 National Advocacy Institute Issue Brief discussing local school districts need for flexibility to operate a school lunch and breakfast programs to give them more local control; and

WHEREAS, the Board is also concerned with desensitizing students to concerns about responsible solid waste
management practices and its broader impacts on our environment; and

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the New Paltz Central School District Board of Education declares its
strong opposition to the elimination of local autonomy in the management of the District’s school nutrition program;
and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Board seeks immediate remediation from requirements forcing fruit and
vegetables on students leaving the District to absorb the unintended financial consequences of these standards.

BOE Adopted 3/18/15