I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5136 

To address infrastructure needs for food banks serving rural communities 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AUGUST 4, 2023 

Ms. BONAMICI (for herself and Ms. SCHRIER) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 

A BILL 

To address infrastructure needs for food banks serving rural 

communities and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Supporting Transpor5 tation Organization and Refrigeration Expansion Act of 

6 2023’’ or ‘‘STORE Act of 2023’’. 

7 SEC. 2. IMPROVING THE EFAP INFRASTRUCTURE GRANTS 

8 PROGRAM. 

9 Section 209 of the Emergency Food Assistance Act 

10 of 1983 (7 U.S.C. 7511a) is amended— 


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1 (1) in subsection (a) by striking ‘‘an emergency 

2 feeding organization’’ and inserting ‘‘the State agen3 cy designated by a State in the State plan required 

4 by section 202A (7 U.S.C. 7503)’’, 

5 (2) in subsection (b)(2)— 

6 (A) by striking the heading and inserting 

7 ‘‘PREFERENCE’’, 

8 (B) by inserting ‘‘Tribal, low income, and 

9 remote’’ before ‘‘communities’’, and 

10 (C) in subparagraph (A) by striking and 

11 inserting ‘‘rural’’ with ‘‘these’’, 

12 (3) in subsection (c)— 

13 (A) by striking ‘‘carry out activities of the 

14 eligible entity’’ and inserting ‘‘distribute grant 

15 amounts to support activities’’, 

16 (B) in paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘for the 

17 tracking of time-sensitive food products’’ and 

18 inserting ‘‘needed to safely and efficiently dis19 tribute food to people in need’’, 

20 (C) in paragraph (2) by striking ‘‘time-sen21 sitive and perishable food products’’ and insert22 ing ‘‘commodities provided by the Secretary 

23 under this Act and commodities secured from 

24 other sources’’, 

25 (D) in paragraph (3)— 


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1 (i) by striking ‘‘through the support 

2 of small or mid-size farms and ranches, 

3 fisheries, and aquaculture, and donations 

4 from local food producers and manufactur5 ers to persons in need’’, and 

6 (ii) by inserting ‘‘, including expand7 ing mobile and home delivery options and 

8 assessments or professional studies of out9 reach activities’’ after ‘‘United States’’, 

10 (E) in paragraph (4) by inserting ‘‘, gov11 ernmental, and Tribal’’ after ‘‘nonprofit’’, and 

12 (F) in paragraph (5)— 

13 (i) in subparagraph (B) by inserting 

14 ‘‘, governmental, and Tribal’’ after ‘‘non15 profit’’, and 

16 (ii) in subparagraph (C)— 

17 (I) by striking ‘‘rural areas’’ and 

18 inserting ‘‘underserved areas identi19 fied in subsection (b)(2)’’, and 

20 (II) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end, 

21 (G) in paragraph (6)— 

22 (i) by striking ‘‘constructing’’ and in23 serting ‘‘renovating’’, and 

24 (ii) by striking the period at the end 

25 and inserting ‘‘; and’’, and 


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1 (H) by adding at the end the following: 

2 ‘‘(7) not more than 4 percent of such grant for 

3 administrative costs to carry this section.’’, and 

4 (4) in subsection (d) by striking ‘‘$15,000,000’’ 

5 and all that follows through ‘‘2023’’, and inserting 

6 ‘‘$25,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2024 

7 through 2028’’. 

8 SEC. 3. REPORT ON COLD STORAGE NEEDS NATIONALLY. 

9 (a) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 

10 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture 

11 shall carry out a study and produce a report— 

12 (1) on the shortages to meet the total emer13 gency food needs for refrigerated and frozen storage 

14 space, as well as refrigerated trucks and other deliv15 ery vehicles, for use by emergency food organizations 

16 to meet the needs of their communities, and 

17 (2) an estimate of the cost to meet the needs 

18 of all emergency food organizations, including food 

19 banks and food pantries, nationally for new coolers, 

20 freezers, refrigerated and dry trucks, and trailers. 

21 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

22 (1) EMERGENCY FOOD ORGANIZATION.—The 

23 term ‘‘emergency food organization’’ has the mean24 ing given it in section 2 of the Emergency Food As25 sistance Act of 1983 (7 U.S.C. 7501) and is not othVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:11 Aug 22, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5136.IH H5136

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1 erwise limited to relevant organizations participating 

2 in the emergency food assistance program under 

3 such Act. 

4 (2) SHORTAGES.—The term ‘‘shortages’’ means 

5 meeting the total emergency food needs of the com6 munity, group, school, network, region, town, city, 

7 state, or otherwise relevant area an emergency feed8 ing organization serves. 

9 (c) APPROPRIATIONS.—There is appropriated, out of 

10 any funds in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 

11 $1,000,000, to remain available until expended, to carry 

12 out this section. 

Æ 


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