California Laws

In the year 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation to help combat the presence of childhood obesity in California schools. The Governor has always felt strongly about good nutrition and with the obesity rate of children on the rise, he rightfully took action. Schwarzenegger said “California is facing an obesity epidemic. That is why today I am signing into law the most progressive school nutrition reforms in the nation. This legislation will take junk food and sodas off the school campuses, and put more fruits and vegetables into school meals". Removing junk foods and sodas is a tremendous first step toward making California a healthier state. Though this does not wholly solve the problem of innutritious foods in schools, it is absolutely necessary.

There are three parts to the legislation that was passed, below are the purposes of each bill as stated by the Office of the Governor.

• SB 12 sets food nutrition standards for food served and sold in K-12 public schools.
• SB 281 provides a framework to implement the $18.2 million in the Governor's budget to include more fresh fruits and vegetables in school meal programs.
• SB 965 extends the ban on the sale of soda currently in middle schools to public high schools, but allows the sale of milk products, juice-based products, water and electrolyte drinks to continue.

I am hoping that this new ban on junk foods in California schools is successful, so successful that it becomes a nationwide ban.