Sponsors (9)
The bill makes it easier and cheaper for child care providers to prepare fresh produce—potentially improving child nutrition and provider viability—while increasing food-safety risks and reducing uniform oversight unless paired with clear guidance, training, and monitoring.
Children in child care (including home-based and licensed-exempt settings) would gain greater access to fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds because providers could cut, slice, and wash produce onsite, improving daily nutrition.
Home- and family-based child care providers (including licensed-exempt) would face fewer regulatory barriers and lower food costs and waste by preparing fresh produce onsite, reducing operating burdens and ongoing expenses for small providers.
Child care programs would gain operational flexibility to offer more varied, potentially higher-quality menus (more fresh produce and simple preparations), which can support better nutrition and meal variety for enrolled children.
Children and families could face higher risk of foodborne illness if providers lack training, resources, or clear safety guidance to safely prepare produce onsite.
States, families, and providers may experience reduced oversight and inconsistent implementation—regulatory tools and uniform enforcement could be weakened, producing uneven safety and service quality across jurisdictions and disadvantaging families where guidance or monitoring is lacking.
Taxpayers, states, and providers could incur hidden public or legal costs (inspections, remediations, litigation, or administrative expenses) if ambiguous rules about allowed 'simple preparation' or safety gaps generate disputes or public-health responses.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Introduced March 5, 2025 by Marie Gluesenkamp Perez · Last progress March 5, 2025
Prohibits States that implement the Child Care and Development Block Grant program from imposing rules that block basic preparation of fresh fruits and vegetables in child care settings. It defines “simple food preparation” (washing, peeling, cutting, serving raw or minimally processed produce) and applies that definition to limit state-level barriers for both licensed and license-exempt child care providers.