§ 4723. Professional development for food service personnel

(a) The Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets, the Commissioner of Health, and farm-to-school organizations and partners, shall offer professional development opportunities for public school food service and child care personnel and child care resource development specialists. Training shall include information about strategies for procuring, processing, and serving locally grown foods, especially with regard to federal procurement program requirements, as well as information about nutrition, obesity prevention, coping with severe food allergies, universal recycling, and food service operations. The Secretary of Education may use a portion of the funds appropriated for this training session to pay a portion of or all expenses for attendees and to develop manuals or other materials to help in the training.

(b) The Secretary of Education shall, with existing programs and organizations, provide training related to procurement of local food and technical assistance to school food service and child care personnel and use a portion of the funds appropriated for this purpose to enable the trained people to provide technical assistance at the school and school district levels.

(c) Training provided under this section shall promote the policies established in the Vermont School Wellness Policy Guidelines developed by the Agencies of Agriculture, Food and Markets and of Education and the Department of Health, updated in June 2015, or the guidelines' successor.