By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice
As Rep. Ron Weinberg’s bill taking aim at food waste in school cafeterias from Julesburg to Cortez and all points in between was sailing through the Colorado House on final reading this week, his companion piece of legislation was getting similar treatment Thursday in a House committee.
House Bill 25-1166, by the Larimer County Republican and Democrat Rep. Lisa Feret, would expand the Department of Public Health and Environment’s role to include training and encourage donation of food through a waste reduction initiative.
Specifically, the bill would allow retail food establishments to sell or donate food online and to sell chilled or frozen food at a discount to individuals eligible for food assistance, and also to have grocers replace “sell by” dates with “best if used by” dates on prepared items.
“This is truly a fiscally important bill for the state,” Weinberg said. “It will save us money.”
The bill expands legal immunity which already existed for farmers, schools, hospitals, processors, retailers and others donating food to include both the donation to and by faith-based organizations.
“It is good to work to save food, and not waste it,” said House Business Affairs and Labor Chairwoman Naquetta Ricks.
Opposition could form, though, from the bill’s intrusion into dictates to private business as to how to label their perishable food items.
It was approved on a 12-0 vote of the committee Thursday and advanced to the House.
Meanwhile, the companion HB 1059, also by Weinberg and Feret, an effort to reduce food waste in schools, cleared the House Wednesday on a 60-3 vote, losing the support of only some of the House’s most conservative members: Reps. Scott Bottoms, Ken DeGraaf and Stephanie Luck, none of which spoke to provide their reason for opposition.