MORGANTOWN – The House Education Committee crammed a wham-bam 9-minute meeting between floor sessions on Monday – approving two Senate student-hunger bills and a Senate PROMISE Scholarship bill without debate.
SB 162 is the Summer Feeding for All Program, for schools to find alternative ways to feed children in need.
It requires county school boards to conduct periodic assessments of their students’ food needs and county resources available to address food insecurity for times when school is not in session. The Shared Table Initiative will be expanded to encourage schools to locate, participate in and initiate programs to provide meals during summers and non-school days.
Every county system shall conduct an annual survey of public school students to determine their non-school eating patterns and availability of nutritious food when school is closed. The Office of Child Nutrition will assist in the survey and needs determinations.
School boards must distribute information to students on available food resources for non-school days. And the Office of Child Nutrition may monitor all these activities and share between counties word of innovative and successful programs.
The bill heads to the full House.
SB 292 is the Hunger-Free Campus Act. It calls on the Higher Education Policy Commission to establish a Hunger-Free Campus Grant Program to provide grants to institutions designated as hunger-free campuses.
To receive the designation, an institution must establish a task force that meets three times per academic year and set goals and action plans. It must designate a staff member to assist students in enrolling in SNAP and use the benefits at campus stores.
The institution must also hold an annual awareness day campaign activity and plan a campus awareness event during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week.
The institution must also provide one food pantry on campus or a make a separate arrangement to provide pantry access. And it must provide a Swipe Out Hunger student meal credit sharing program or fund meal vouchers, and conduct an annual student survey on hunger to provide to the HEPC.
The committee amended SB 529, to include Salem University in the PROMISE Scholarship program. Vice-chair Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, asked chair Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, to see if Finance would waive the reference to that committee since there is no fiscal note. Ellington said he would try but they haven’t had much luck with those requests.
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
