Byron Donalds rolls out school nutrition, water testing plan

Republican gubernatorial front-runner Byron Donalds just unveiled an ambitious plan to overhaul Florida school meals and guarantee clean water access.

The announcement strengthens Donalds’ policy-focused agenda as he heads toward a likely General Election matchup against presumptive Democratic nominee David Jolly.

Donalds’ “Healthy Florida Healthy Families” plan, a press note from his campaign said, would remove ultra-processed foods, artificial dyes and harmful additives from school cafeterias, and close “loopholes” that today allow soda and candy onto campuses.

It would also require districts to post menus and ingredients online while mandating lead and contamination testing in every Florida school, with results posted publicly and remediation required wherever unsafe levels are found.

“When a kid sits down in a cafeteria, parents want to know what’s on that tray. When they fill a cup at the fountain, we want to know what’s in that water,” Donalds said.

“Florida doesn’t have to wait on Washington to catch up. We already grow the food and we already have the farmers ready to supply it. This isn’t radical, it’s what every parent expects at their own kitchen table, and it’s what Florida is going to deliver to every Florida student.”

The plan, announced Friday, aims to scale up Florida’s existing Farm to School program, connecting state farmers directly to school cafeterias through a dedicated appropriation to build the supply chain clean food standards require.

It also prioritizes free or subsidized testing and remediation for families with young children on private wells and aligns Florida’s testing panel with the Environmental Protection Agency’s April 2026 Draft Contaminant Candidate List 6, which designates microplastics and pharmaceuticals as priority contaminants, alongside so-called “forever chemicals” known collectively as PFAS.

The “Healthy Florida Healthy Families” plan comes four days after Donalds announced his proposed “Protecting Ratepayers Act,” which is intended to prevent data center developers from encroaching on Florida’s electricity grid or competing for finite water supplies.

Gov. Ron DeSantis could not get the Senate-passed “AI Bill of Rights” through the House despite including it in a Special Session call. However, legislation (SB 484) requiring data centers to cover their own utility services costs and infrastructure expenses was signed this year.

The law also opened the door to using reclaimed water for cooling, and requires entities using more than 100,000 gallons per day to detail plans for water use and conservation.

The state law also gives local governments power to do comprehensive planning and pass land development regulations over data centers.

Donalds holds commanding leads in both internal and public polling ahead of the GOP Primary.

His campaign’s recent internal polling shows him with 53% support, statistically unchanged from April, while his closest opponent, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, sits at 10%. Businessman-investor James Fishback, whom Collins is seeking to remove from the contest over a residency dispute, is at 9%, while former House Speaker Paul Renner trails at 4%.

Public polling confirms Donalds’ dominance. On average, he holds 45.5% support, with Collins and Fishback at 10% apiece and Renner at 3%.

Donalds has also aggressively deployed his substantial financial advantage, spending nearly $7 million during the week ending July 10, most of it on media buys.

He closed that week with nearly $60 million remaining to spend.

In contrast, Collins raised less than $9,300 that week but spent more than $2.1 million, leaving roughly $1.1 million for the final stretch.

Fishback’s fundraising has dried up entirely, with him raising less than $6,500 while spending more than $75,000, leaving him with less than $50,000 on hand.

The Primary is Aug. 18, followed by the General Election on Nov. 3.

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A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics contributed to this report.