§18-5D-6. West Virginia Emergency School Food Act.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares that:
(1) The Feed to Achieve initiative has successfully improved the availability and awareness for the need to provide nutritious food to state students and the Shared Table Initiative has facilitated a spirit of innovation and consciousness in our counties to find alternative ways to feed children in need;
(2) A periodic assessment of the needs for county students and availability of county resources would be helpful in determining what type of resources are available and needed to reduce food insecurity for students when they are not in school;
(3) That expansion of the Shared Table Initiative to include a program to encourage county schools to locate, participate in, and initiate programs to provide meals during summers and non-school-day times when some children may not have access to healthy meals could assist in reducing food insecurity for thousands of children in this state, and therefore, creating a mechanism that is not a directive from the Legislature upon county school boards, but rather an authorization to use school resources to find innovative ways, within the means of the county school systems, to assist the communities they serve, will provide a public benefit.
(b) Any county public school system may conduct an annual countywide survey of public-school students to determine their noninstructional or nontraditional remote learning and virtual school day eating patterns and the availability of nutritious food to them when schools are closed. The West Virginia Office of Child Nutrition may assist and facilitate with this survey to determine the needs for supplemental food services in every county.
(c) Any county board may collect and compile information regarding the availability of food resources in the county during noninstructional or nontraditional remote learning days as well as include a plan that includes virtual school students and distribute this information to all students. These resources may include any public, private, religious group, or charity that will provide food to children with food insecurity.
(d) Any county school board may investigate and implement any program that may facilitate this initiative including, but not limited to, entrepreneurship programs to foster innovation in providing assistance, utilizing participation in programs as a positive discipline option, and creating mentorship programs or other opportunities to participate in the feeding program.
(e) Any county school board may provide an annual countywide or a coordinated regional training opportunity, with assistance from the West Virginia Office of Child Nutrition, that ensures that any entity that potentially qualifies as a summer feeding site according to the county survey, is afforded the opportunity to receive training on operation of a feeding site.
(f) Any county board may provide its survey, a summary of its activities, and any findings or recommendations the county school board has related thereto, to the West Virginia Office of Child Nutrition at a date determined each year by that office.
(g) Each West Virginia public school may include in its crisis response plan, created pursuant to §18-9F-9, an assessment and plan to feed students during noninstructional or nontraditional remote learning days and public virtual school students that includes emergency situations that may require innovative ways to deliver food to student homes. Community support and resources should be utilized when creating this plan.
(h) The West Virginia Office of Child Nutrition may monitor these activities and share between counties information about innovative and successful program initiatives around the state to promote and facilitate the West Virginia Emergency School Food Act.
