AB 675 establishes the California Farm to School Program within the Office of Farm to Fork to use state capacity to strengthen links between local agriculture and K–12 food systems. The statute frames the program around equity, student engagement, climate resilience, and scalable change in how schools source and teach about food.
The bill is largely an enabling framework: it directs the Office to design programming and create an incubator grant vehicle, authorizes a suite of discretionary initiatives (subject to available funding), and creates a dedicated Farm to School Account that can receive federal, state, industry, philanthropic, and private dollars to support the effort upon appropriation by the Legislature.
At a Glance
What It Does
Establishes the California Farm to School Program administered by the Office of Farm to Fork to expand procurement of California-grown, whole or minimally processed foods for school meal programs and to increase hands-on food education for pupils. It authorizes optional initiatives to build producer–school relationships, improve nutrition, and scale best practices.
Who It Affects
State agencies (Office of Farm to Fork, Department of Food and Agriculture, State Department of Education, Department of Social Services), school food authorities and district nutrition directors, California producers and processors seeking school contracts, and philanthropic or private funders who may contribute to the program account.
Why It Matters
The bill creates a state-level vehicle to direct funding and technical assistance toward local procurement and education, rather than a regulatory mandate. For school food professionals and producers, it signals new capacity-building resources and a possible new funding stream — but only if the Legislature and outside funders provide money.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The statute sets up an administrative program housed in the Office of Farm to Fork and charges that office with developing programming designed to increase use of California-grown, whole or minimally processed foods in school meal programs and to expand experiential food education (gardens, culinary classes, farm visits, and work that recognizes traditional foodways). The bill stops short of imposing procurement mandates on schools; instead it privileges relationship-building, technical assistance, and incentives delivered through program initiatives.
When funding exists the Office may roll out targeted initiatives. The text lists examples — strengthening the state farm-to-school network, creating materials and matches between local producers and school personnel, supporting scratch-cooking models in cafeterias, encouraging Good Agricultural Practices, promoting climate-smart agricultural methods, and addressing certification and insurance barriers.
The statute explicitly frames many of these as capacity-building measures rather than regulatory obligations.The Office must run a California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program intended to support pilots and capacity building (the bill does not specify grant size, eligibility rules, or timelines). It must develop the program in consultation with the State Department of Education and the Department of Social Services, and it can facilitate an interagency working group to coordinate across state systems.On funding, the bill creates a Farm to School Account inside the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund that can accept federal, state, industry, philanthropic, and private contributions.
Importantly, money in the account is available for use only after the Legislature appropriates it. The Department of Food and Agriculture is also empowered to adopt regulations necessary to run the program.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill makes implementation discretionary: the Office of Farm to Fork “may” implement listed initiatives only to the extent that funding is available (no mandatory spending floor).
It requires the Office to administer a California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program, but the statute provides no eligibility criteria, award size, or timeline — those details are left to the Office and future appropriations.
Section 49025.1(c) explicitly lists program activities that can be funded, including building producer–school relationships, promoting scratch cooking, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), climate‑smart practices, and addressing certification and insurance barriers.
The Department of Food and Agriculture may adopt regulations to implement the program, giving the Department rulemaking authority to fill in operational details.
The Farm to School Account (in the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund) may hold federal, state, industry, philanthropic, and private monies, but funds are expendable only upon legislative appropriation.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title — California Farm to School Act
This section simply names the new chapter the California Farm to School Act. Naming matters: it frames the program as a permanent policy concept within Division 17 of the Food and Agricultural Code and signals legislative intent to treat school food within the state's agricultural policy portfolio.
Program establishment and goals
These subsections establish the California Farm to School Program in the Office of Farm to Fork and set program goals: cultivate equity, nurture students, build climate resilience, and create scalable change. They also define the program's two core operational priorities—boosting procurement of California-grown whole or minimally processed foods for school meals, and expanding hands-on food education. The language codifies high-level objectives but stops short of creating a procurement preference or compulsory standards for schools.
Discretionary initiatives and scope
This is the operative worklist: the Office may, when funded, advance the farm-to-school network; provide resources and facilitate producer–school relationships; encourage best practices like scratch cooking, GAP, climate-smart agriculture, certification, and insurance; and increase the nutritional profile of school foods. Because the statute uses permissive language (“may”), these activities depend on funding choices and program design rather than an automatic rollout.
Incubator grants and interagency consultation
The Office is required to administer a California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program and to develop programing in consultation with the State Department of Education and the Department of Social Services. Practically, this sets up the Office as both grantmaker and coordinator but leaves the nuts-and-bolts of grant criteria, prioritization, and partnership roles to future rulemaking and appropriation decisions.
Regulatory authority and finance structure
The Department of Food and Agriculture may adopt regulations necessary for program administration, providing the legal pathway to define eligibility, reporting, and other operational details. The Farm to School Account is created within the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund to receive federal, state, industry, philanthropic, and private funds; however, the statute requires legislative appropriation before monies can be spent, keeping budgetary control with the Legislature.
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Explore Agriculture in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- K–12 pupils and students — expanded hands‑on food education (gardens, culinary classes, farm experiences) can increase nutrition literacy and exposure to whole foods, aligning school meals with educational objectives.
- Local California producers and small processors — the program aims to cultivate demand and relationships that can open school contracts, particularly for farms and processors that can scale to meet district needs or participate in incubator grants.
- School food authorities and district nutrition directors — the Office’s technical assistance, matchmaking resources, and incubator grants could reduce barriers to scratch cooking and sourcing local products.
- Community organizations and groups preserving traditional foodways — the bill explicitly recognizes programming that celebrates traditional foodways and cultivates food sovereignty, creating potential partnership and funding opportunities.
- Philanthropic and private funders — the law creates a formal conduit (the Farm to School Account) for outside dollars to be pooled and deployed for school-food system investments.
Who Bears the Cost
- Office of Farm to Fork and Department of Food and Agriculture — administrative responsibility to design, run grants, coordinate interagency work, and possibly promulgate regulations, all of which consume staff time and resources.
- State budget/Legislature — program activity depends on future appropriations; scaling the program will require the Legislature to allocate funds from the Farm to School Account or the General Fund.
- School districts and food service operations — implementing scratch cooking, procurement shifts, or education programming often requires kitchen upgrades, staff training, and logistics changes that can increase short-term costs.
- Small producers — while potential demand increases, farms and processors may need to invest in GAP certification, insurance, processing capacity, or distribution upgrades to meet school requirements.
- State partner agencies (State Department of Education, Department of Social Services) — expected to consult and coordinate, which will require staff time and may divert capacity from other priorities.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill trades prescriptive mandates for flexible capacity-building: it aims to expand local procurement and experiential education while depending on discretionary funding and administrative design — forcing a choice between ambitious, well-funded implementation that overcomes supply and administrative hurdles and a low-cost, limited program that risks producing modest or uneven benefits.
AB 675 creates an enabling framework rather than a prescriptive program. That design preserves flexibility but leaves several implementation gaps: grant rules, eligibility, award size, reporting requirements, and metrics for success are not specified and will depend on future regulations and appropriations.
Practically, the program’s reach hinges on two levers the statute leaves uncertain — (1) whether the Legislature and private/philanthropic actors supply meaningful funding, and (2) how the Department uses its rulemaking authority to translate statutory examples into enforceable program guidance.
Operational tensions are real. Increasing procurement of California-grown, minimally processed foods is straightforward in theory but difficult in practice: school food budgets, federal reimbursement rules, supplier capacity, and product specifications (portioning, shelf life, packaging) all affect feasibility.
Encouraging GAP, certification, and insurance is useful for food safety and procurement compliance, but those requirements can create an adoption barrier for small and socially disadvantaged farmers unless accompanied by targeted funding and technical assistance. The bill names an interagency working group and consultation partners but leaves coordination mechanics unspecified, so cross-agency misalignment or slow rulemaking could delay program benefits.
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