(1) The general assembly finds and declares that:

(a) It is in the best interests of Colorado's children, farmers, ranchers, food processors, manufacturers, and communities to develop a more robust and self-sustaining agricultural sector that promotes healthy foods at schools and to encourage regulated child care programs to increase their use of local farm and ranch products in their food service programs, especially the school meal programs, in order to improve child nutrition and strengthen local and regional agricultural economies;

(b) Because a child can receive up to fifty-five percent of his or her daily nutritional requirements from school breakfast and lunch programs, it is important to encourage children to eat a healthy diet of fresh foods at school;

(c) While children receiving inadequate nutrition are at risk of lower achievement in school, research shows an improvement in student behavior, academic performance, and health scores when nutrition is improved; and

(d) Therefore, in order to encourage healthy and lifelong habits of eating fresh, minimally processed, and nutritious local foods as well as to foster relationships among farmers and school children, school personnel, and other adults in the Colorado community and to promote the sale of agricultural products produced in the state, it is in the best interests of the state to develop a farm-to-school program.

(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that a successful statewide farm-to-school program will require the creation of an interagency farm-to-school coordination task force with resources, expertise, and collaboration of a variety of state agencies, including the department of education, the department of agriculture, the department of public health and environment, and school districts.