American Food for American Schools Act of 2026

This bill changes the Buy American rules for federally funded school meals and other child nutrition programs. It removes the phrase "to the maximum extent practicable" from the rule, applies the rule to programs such as summer meals, child and adult care food, special milk, and school breakfast, and requires schools to request a waiver from the Secretary of Agriculture before buying foreign food, except when domestic products are not available in enough quantity or quality. Waivers would be capped at 5 percent of a school food authority's yearly commercial food costs in each food component. Schools would have to notify parents yearly about foreign foods bought, the Department of Agriculture would post waivers and supplier violations online, and suppliers that break Buy American contract terms would have to repay the federal funds used. The bill also raises the Buy American training program funding from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 for 2026 through 2031 and makes technical corrections.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• John Garamendi Democrat sponsor
• 2 cosponsors