The School Nutrition Association of Virginia would like to express our support for the final regulations. We represent over 1,700 members who provide high-quality, affordable, nutritious meals to students across the Commonwealth. The SNA-VA was one of the stakeholder groups who worked on the “Healthy Snacks” legislation in 2010 and served on the advisory group that helped craft these regulations. We strongly support the purpose of these regulations and believe they will greatly benefit Virginia students. We appreciate the opportunity to provide comments throughout the regulatory process.

We are pleased to see our concerns were addressed regarding the new language to comply with fundraiser exemption legislation passed in 2015. Thank you for including clarification that it is optional to exempt fundraisers and that school divisions are permitted to follow their local wellness policy requirements. We also appreciate the language clarifying that these fundraisers cannot be held during school breakfast and school lunch times. The SNA-VA is also pleased that a fundraiser has been limited to one-day and that any subsequent days would count as another fundraiser and toward the total count of 30 fundraisers. 

Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments and for allowing us to engage in this regulatory process.