30% New York State Initiative

When schools use food products from local sources, they are supporting local farmers and providing healthy choices for children in school meal programs, while also supporting the local economy. This initiative is intended to provide healthy New York sourced food products, such as farm fresh products, to children as part of their lunch meal in school. School food authorities (SFAs) applying to the initiative should, to the best extent possible, reach the required threshold with healthy, farm fresh items served with the reimbursable lunch meal and should limit the inclusion of a la carte snack foods.

Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2022 provides school food authorities (SFAs) with increased State reimbursement for the purchase of New York State (NYS) food products for school lunch programs.  This initiative will be referred to as the “30% NYS Initiative.” As of July 1, 2022, the Department (AGM) has taken the lead on this initiative.

To incentivize school districts to use more New York State farm products, this initiative increases the reimbursement schools receive for lunches from 5.9 cents per meal to 25 cents per meal for any district that ensures at least 30% of their lunch costs are made up of eligible New York products. School districts that have reached the 30 percent threshold will receive the additional reimbursement in the following school year.

SFAs that purchase food items and prepare their own school lunches, or SFAs that contract with a Food Service Management Company to purchase food items and prepare school lunches are eligible to participate in the 30% NYS Initiative. SFAs that procure school lunches from a vendor* are NOT eligible to participate. SFAs must apply annually to receive this additional reimbursement.

A vendor is defined as a company (commercial enterprise, nonprofit organization, or public entity) that prepares, cooks, and packages unitized/bulk form meals, off-site at their own facilities and delivers them.  Vendors provide meals only and do not manage any aspect of the school food service. 

For a step-by-step on how to participate in this initiative, please see the 30% Planning and Implementation webinar in the “Trainings” section. Detailed instructions for foodservice directors can also be found in the Foodservice Director Handbook in the “Tools & Resources” section. In general, the process includes:

• STEP 1. Determine your 30% Threshold using the 30% calculator.
• STEP 2. Determine what NYS items to serve at lunch, using the NY Food Product Database. Note: this database is not comprehensive, it contains the processed products that have been verified as qualifying for the 30% Initiative.
• STEP 3. Use the Planning Calculator, found in the “Tools & Resources” section, to estimate food cost changes from procuring more NYS products.
• STEP 4.  Procure NYS products.
• STEP 5.  Ensure proper NYS verification of products.
• STEP 6. Menu and serve NYS food products at lunch.
• STEP 7. Track purchases of NYS items served during lunch throughout the school year.
• STEP 8. Apply to the 30% NYS Initiative each year by submitting applications to [email protected].
• STEP 9. Receive additional State reimbursement in the following School Year (SY).

Additional guidance documents are available in the Tools & Resources section.

Upcoming:

No upcoming trainings at this time. Please check back later for updates.

Library:

24-25 SY Application Process

• Presented: 5/30/25. Instructions on how to fill out the updated application, required documentation, and audit and review expectations.

30% Planning and Implementation

• Presented: 2/13/25. Learn how to incorporate more NYS-grown products into your school lunch program with a minimum of cost. 30% program requirements, best practices, and a step-by-step walkthrough of how a 30% program can be planned and implemented is presented in this webinar.