Food Desert Elimination Grant Program.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide specific details about how much money each store can get from grants.

Food Desert Grant Program

This law creates a grant program to help bring grocery stores with healthy food options to areas that lack access to fresh and nutritious foods.

What This Bill Does

• Creates the Food Desert Elimination Grant Program within the Department of Food and Agriculture.
• Establishes the Food Desert Elimination Fund in the state's budget to provide money for grants, but requires legislative appropriation.
• Allows the department to give grants to grocery store operators who want to open stores or improve existing ones in areas with limited food access.
• Requires the department to set guidelines for how the grant program will work.
• Makes sure that the program ends on December 31, 2030.

Who It Names or Affects

• Grocery store operators who want to open stores or improve existing ones in food deserts.
• People living in areas with limited access to healthy foods.

Terms To Know

Food Desert

An area where people have little or no access to affordable and nutritious food, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.

Grant Program

A program that gives money to individuals or organizations for specific purposes, like opening grocery stores in areas with limited food options.

Limits and Unknowns

• The grant program will only work if the state legislature provides funding.
• The law does not specify how much money each store can get from the grants.
• The program is set to end on December 31, 2030.

Official Summary Text

SB 18, as amended, Rubio.
Food Desert Elimination Grant Program.
Existing law creates the Office of Farm to Fork within the Department of Food and Agriculture, and requires the office, to the extent that resources are available, to work with various entities, as prescribed, to increase the amount of agricultural products available to underserved communities and schools in the state. Existing law requires the office, among other things, to identify distribution barriers that affect limited food access and work to overcome those barriers through various actions and to coordinate with school districts and representatives to increase the nutritional profile of foods provided in schools.
This bill would create the Food Desert Elimination Grant Program under the administration of the department for the purpose of expanding access to healthy foods in food deserts, as defined, in the state, and areas at risk of
becoming food deserts, by providing grants to grocery store operators, as specified. The bill would create the Food Desert Elimination Fund in the General Fund and would authorize the fund to be expended by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of the program. The bill would authorize the department to collect nonstate, federal, and private funds, require those funds to be deposited into the California Equitable Food Access Account within the Food Desert Elimination Fund, and continuously appropriate moneys in the account to the department for purposes of the
program, thereby making an appropriation.
program.
The bill would authorize the department to award grants for specified purposes to grocery store operators seeking to locate grocery stores in food
deserts.
deserts or to existing grocery stores located in food deserts.
The bill would authorize the department to adopt guidelines to implement these provisions. The bill would make the implementation of
these
all of its
provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would repeal
these
its
provisions on December 31, 2030.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF