N.M. Admin. Code § 6.12.16.8

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 21, November 5, 2024

Section 6.12.16.8 - REQUIREMENTS

A. All public schools that operate the NSLP and the SBP shall establish a healthy universal school meals program.

B. Bureau of Indian education schools, tribally controlled schools, and private schools that operate the NSLP and the SBP may establish a healthy universal school meals program to offer high-quality meals at no charge to students provided that state and federal funding is available, and the school complies with applicable state and federal laws.

C. Each school food authority that establishes a healthy universal school meals program shall seek to achieve certification for meal quality improvement requirements by July 1, 2025.

D. Meal quality improvement requirements shall include the following:

(1) Fifty percent of all weekly required meal pattern components, with the exception of milk, shall be freshly prepared; and

(a) to determine the quantity of meal pattern components necessary to meet requirements, school food authorities must calculate the weekly total of each required component, per grade grouping, for breakfast and lunch;

(b) Fifty percent of the total number of weekly components per meal pattern component category shall be freshly prepared;

(c) if any site in a school food authority operates more than one reimbursable meal line, the fifty percent requirement of freshly prepared meal pattern components must be met for each reimbursable meal line.

(2) Achievement of the lowest level of food waste, by:

(a) permitting students in grades kindergarten through five to have up to twenty minutes of seated lunch time each school day to provide lunch periods that are sufficiently long to give all students adequate time to eat; and

(b) requiring share tables be provided where food service staff, students, and parents may return allowable food; allowable food placed on the share tables that is not taken by a student during the course of a regular school meal period shall be donated to students, food banks, or other nonprofit charitable organizations.

(3) Utilization of New Mexico-grown foods, pursuant to the following:

(a) school food authorities are eligible to receive an incentive grant pursuant to this section to purchase New Mexico-grown, -raised, or -processed products;

(b) participating school food authorities may use the amount received pursuant to this paragraph to support implementation of meal quality improvement requirements;

(c) school food authorities shall use the money received pursuant to this section to purchase New Mexico-grown, -raised, or -processed products, with a minimum of seventy-five percent of funds used to purchase unprocessed and minimally processed products, and with up to twenty-five percent of funds that may be used to purchase value-added processed products;

(d) by August 1 of each year, subject to available appropriations, the department shall distribute to each participating school food authority the greater of one thousand dollars or an amount equal to ten cents multiplied by the number of lunches that qualified for federal free meal reimbursement that the participating school food authority served to students in the preceding school year; and

(e) when calculating the amount of program funding that is due to a school food authority, the department shall assume that student participation will remain at the same level as the previous year.

N.M. Admin. Code § 6.12.16.8

Adopted by New Mexico Register, Volume XXXV, Issue 18, September 24, 2024, eff. 9/24/2024