[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
SERVING STUDENTS AND FAMILIES
THROUGH CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, APRIL 15, 2015
__________
Serial No. 114-9
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Virginia
Duncan Hunter, California Ranking Member
David P. Roe, Tennessee Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania Susan A. Davis, California
Tim Walberg, Michigan Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Matt Salmon, Arizona Joe Courtney, Connecticut
Brett Guthrie, Kentucky Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
Todd Rokita, Indiana Jared Polis, Colorado
Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Joseph J. Heck, Nevada Northern Mariana Islands
Luke Messer, Indiana Frederica S. Wilson, Florida
Bradley Byrne, Alabama Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
David Brat, Virginia Mark Pocan, Wisconsin
Buddy Carter, Georgia Mark Takano, California
Michael D. Bishop, Michigan Hakeem S. Jeffries, New York
Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin Katherine M. Clark, Massachusetts
Steve Russell, Oklahoma Alma S. Adams, North Carolina
Carlos Curbelo, Florida Mark DeSaulnier, California
Elise Stefanik, New York
Rick Allen, Georgia
Juliane Sullivan, Staff Director
Denise Forte, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on April 15, 2015................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Kline, Hon. John, Chairman, Committee on Education and the
Workforce.................................................. 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Scott, Hon. Robert C., Ranking Member, Committee on Education
and the Workforce.......................................... 6
Prepared statement of.................................... 7
Statement of Witnesses:
Bauscher, Julia, President, School Nutrition Association,
Director, School and Community Nutrition Services,
Jefferson County Public School District, Louisville, KY.... 15
Prepared statement of.................................... 17
Krey, Kathy, Director of Research and Assistant Research
Professor, Texas Hunger Initiative, Baylor University,
Waco, TX................................................... 26
Prepared statement of.................................... 27
McAuliffe, Dorothy S., First Lady of Virginia, Office of the
Governor, Commonwealth of Virginia, Richmond, VA........... 20
Prepared statement of.................................... 22
Storen, Duke, Senior Director, Research, Advocacy, and
Partner Development, Share Our Strength, Washington, DC.... 10
Prepared statement of.................................... 12
Additional Submissions:
Adams, Hon. Alma S., a Representative in Congress from the
state of North Carolina, question submitted for the record
to:
Ms. Bauscher............................................. 138
Dr. Krey................................................. 140
Mrs. McAuliffe........................................... 142
Mr. Storen............................................... 144
Response to questions submitted:
Ms. Bauscher............................................. 152
Mrs. McAuliffe........................................... 149
Mr. Storen............................................... 151
Mrs. Krey:
The Importance of Nutrition for Learning and Well-being.. 109
Responses to questions submitted for the record.......... 147
Mr. Scott:
American Journal of Preventative Medicine................ 75
New School Meal Regulations Increase Fruit Consumption
and Do Not Increase Total Plate Waste.................. 83
Perceived Reactions of Elementary School Students to
Changes in School Lunches After Implementation of the
United States Department of Agriculture's New Meals
Standards: Minimal Backlash, but Rural and
Socioeconomic disparities Exist........................ 89
Letter from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics....... 97
Prepared statement of National WIC Association, NWA...... 99
Improvements in School Lunches Result in Healthier
Options for Millions of U.S. Children.................. 114
Ending childhood hunger: A social impact analysis........ 117
Letter dated April 14, 2015 from Mars Incorporated....... 127
Prepared statement of the Food Research and Action Center
(FRAC)................................................. 131
Wilson, Hon. Frederica S., a Representative in Congress from
the state of Florida 134
Prepared statement of.................................... 135
SERVING STUDENTS AND FAMILIES THROUGH CHILD
NUTRITION PROGRAMS
----------
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
House of Representatives,
Committee on Education and the Workforce,
Washington, D.C.
----------
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in Room
2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John Kline [chairman
of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Kline, Foxx, Roe, Thompson,
Walberg, Salmon, Guthrie, Rokita, Heck, Messer, Brat, Carter,
Bishop, Grothman, Russell, Curbelo, Stefanik, Allen, Scott,
Hinojosa, Courtney, Fudge, Sablan, Pocan, and Takano.
Staff present: Lauren Aronson, Press Secretary; Janelle
Belland, Coalitions and Members Services Coordinator; Kathlyn
Ehl, Legislative Assistant; Matthew Frame, Staff Assistant; Amy
Raaf Jones, Director of Education and Human Resources Policy;
Cristin Datch Kumar, Professional Staff Member; Nancy Locke,
Chief Clerk; Daniel Murner, Deputy Press Secretary; Brian
Newell, Communications Director; Krisann Pearce, General
Counsel; Mandy Schaumburg, Education Deputy Director and Senior
Counsel; Alissa Strawcutter, Deputy Clerk; Juliane Sullivan,
Staff Director; Leslie Tatum, Professional Staff Member;
Tylease Alli, Minority Clerk/Intern and Fellow Coordinator;
Austin Barbera, Minority Staff Assistant; Kelly Broughan,
Minority Education Policy Advisor; Denise Forte, Minority Staff
Director; Scott Groginsky, Minority Senior Education Policy
Advisor; Tina Hone, Minority Education Policy Director and
Associate General Counsel.
Chairman Kline. A quorum being present, the committee on
Education and the Workforce will come to order.
Well, good morning. Welcome to our guests. We have a very
distinguished panel of witnesses today, including the First
Lady of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Mrs. Dorothy McAuliffe.
Mrs. McAuliffe, we are delighted to have you with us this
morning as we discuss important policies affecting our nation's
students and families.
Healthy meals are vitally important to a child's education.
It is just basic common sense that if a child is hungry, then
he or she is less likely to succeed in the classroom and later
in life. That is why our nation has long invested in services
to provide low income students nutritious meals in schools.
Those services are authorized through a number of laws, such as
the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child
Nutrition Act.
In just a few short months, these laws and the programs
they authorize will expire, including the National School Lunch
and Breakfast Programs, the Supplemental Nutritional Program
for Woman, Infants and Children, or WIC program, and several
others.
It is the responsibility of this committee and Congress to
reauthorize these programs so that students and families
receive the support they need in the most efficient and
effective way. Why is that important? Because no child should
go to school hungry. It is that simple.
Today's discussion is not about whether we agree on this
basic principle; I am confident we all do. Instead, our
discussion today is about beginning a larger effort we will
continue in the coming months to ensure the best policies are
in place to help us reach this goal.
Last week, I had an opportunity to tour a school lunch room
at the Prior Lake High School in Savage, Minnesota. Students
and faculty described what's working and what isn't working in
federal nutrition programs.
As a result of our conversation, two important realities
are abundantly clear. First, our school nutrition professionals
are dedicated men and women doing the best they can under
difficult circumstances and no one should question their
commitment to providing students with nutritious meals.
Unfortunately, rules and regulations put in place in recent
years have made their jobs harder, not easier. The cost of the
lunch and breakfast programs for schools are going up, yet
fewer meals are being served. In fact, the number of children
participating in these programs is declining more rapidly than
any period over the last 30 years.
Second, as we reauthorize these programs, we have to
provide more flexibility at the state and local levels. Those
working in our schools and cafeterias recognize that this has
to be a priority. Even students understand the urgent need for
more flexibility.
During my visit to Prior Lake High School, I talked with a
number of students about their school lunch program. Right now,
the federal government determines the number of calories,
vegetables, and grains that are served to students, which means
Washington is dictating how much food every child is served at
every school meal. This is one reason why the students in this
school are urging the school to drop out of the program.
Many children are bringing food from home or buying more
food because the portion sizes served at school are too small
for a full meal. As one student, Perina Svigem noted, ``A lot
of times, we are going back and getting junk food, not healthy
food.''
This isn't what these children want, this isn't what their
parents and school administrators want, and it is not what we
want either. We have to find a better way forward, one that
continues our commitment to providing nutritious meals for
America's students while giving state and school leaders the
flexibility they need to make it a reality.
That is why we are delighted to have you here today, Mrs.
McAuliffe. Through your work, you are demonstrating that
promoting healthy lifestyles is not just a federal priority,
but a state and local priority, as well.
Often we are told we need more federal involvement because
states can't be trusted to help those in need. But through your
leadership, you are showing states can take the lead on tough
issues in partnership with the federal government.
Again, I would like to thank all of our witnesses for
participating in today's hearing, and working with us to
strengthen child nutrition support.
With that, I will now recognize the committee's ranking
member, my colleague, Congressman Scott from the Commonwealth
of Virginia for his opening remarks.
[The statement of Chairman Kline follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
hearing, and I look forward to examining the continuum of
federal child nutrition programs which are the lifelines for
approximately 40 million children who rely on them for healthy
food every day.
I would like to extend my thanks to all of the witnesses,
but especially the First Lady of my home state of Virginia,
Dorothy McAuliffe. She has been focusing not only on ending
childhood hunger, but also improving access to Virginia's fresh
and locally-grown agricultural commodities. This dual goal
helps children, supports our farmers and strengthens local
economies.
More than 60 years ago, through the enactment of the first
federal child nutrition program, the National School Lunch Act
of 1946, Congress recognized that feeding hungry children was
not just a moral imperative but also an imperative for the
health and security of our nation.
Today, a majority of the American public school students,
51 percent, are eligible for free and reduced school lunch
prices. According to the latest USDA data, 15.8 million, or
over 21 percent of children live in households facing a
constant struggle against hunger. The rates are nearly double
for African-American children at almost 40 percent, and
significantly higher for Hispanic children at almost 30
percent.
The continuum of child nutrition programs and policies that
we will be discussing today are vital to the long-term
successes of our nation's children and, through them, our
nation itself. Through WIC prenatal programs to school and
summer meals and child care food programs, participation in
these programs has resulted in positive health outcomes for low
income children and are 4:1 return on investment. For example,
WIC saves over $4 for every $1 invested in the program due to
fewer low birth-weight and pre-term babies, which costs our
nation over $26 billion a year.
Hunger is linked to lower student achievement and poorer
behavioral outcomes. These programs are powerful tools in
providing greater economic opportunities for at-risk youth and
helping them break free of the tragic cycle of poverty.
While access to food is vitally important, equally
important is access to nutritious, high-quality food. But 30
million children rely on the national school lunch and
breakfast programs. Students consume up to half of their daily
calories while at school, and, for many children, school-based
meals are their primary source of nutrition.
Foods that are too high in fat and sugar have been linked
to weaker educational and behavioral outcomes. They also lead
to childhood obesity and long-term health consequences as
adults, including heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.
Approximately 10 percent of our nation's health care spending
go towards treating conditions related to obesity and unhealthy
weight.
To address these challenges in 2010, Congress enacted the
Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. In addition to expanding access
to child nutrition programs, the law also updated and improved
the nutritional standards for foods served to our children,
standards that had not been revised in over 15 years.
Most importantly, the new standards are based on scientific
evidence, not politics or fiscal bottom lines. They include
weekly limits on calories, sugar, fat and sodium, require
fruits and vegetables at every meal and incorporate whole
grains. These changes are not promoting an exotic diet fad;
they conform to the healthy eating habits that most of us in
this room try to follow every day.
In the vast majority of districts, 93 percent across the
country, are successfully implementing the new health standards
today and students are eating more fruit and vegetables, not
just at school, but also outside of school, too.
As we focus on healthier foods for children, we cannot
ignore that child nutrition is a national security issue.
According to Mission Readiness, a group of retired officers who
support healthy meal standards, 25 percent of young Americans
are too overweight to enlist in our nation's military.
So I am pleased that today we have an opportunity to
discuss the scope and impact of federal child nutrition
programs, and, hopefully, ways to improve and strengthen them.
And, as we move through this process, we must keep in mind that
the overarching goal of these programs is to provide children
with healthy foods that can support them as they learn and
grow. That, in turn, supports our national interests and long-
term economic prosperity.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
[The statement of Mr. Scott follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Ranking Member,
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Good morning and thank you, Chairman Kline, for holding this
hearing today. I look forward to examining the continuum of federal
child nutrition programs, which are lifelines for the approximately 40
million children who rely on them every day for healthy food.
I would like to extend my thanks to all of the witnesses, but I
must extend a special welcome to the First Lady of my home state of
Virginia - Dorothy McAuliffe. Mrs. McAuliffe has been focusing not only
on ending childhood hunger, but also on improving access to Virginia's
fresh and locally grown agricultural commodities. This dual goal helps
children, supports our farmers and strengthens our local economies.
More than 60 years ago, through enactment of the first federal
child nutrition program--the National School Lunch Act of 1946--
Congress recognized that feeding hungry children was not just a moral
imperative but also an imperative for the health and security of our
nation.
Today, a majority of American public school students (51 percent)
are eligible for free and reduced price lunches. According to the
latest USDA data, 15.8 million, or 21.6 percent, of children live in
households facing a constant struggle against hunger. The rates are
nearly double for African American children at 39 percent and
significantly higher for Hispanic children at 29.5 percent. In my state
of Virginia, 16.2 percent of children are food insecure.
The continuum of federal child nutrition programs and policies that
we will be discussing today are vital to the long-term success of our
nation's children and, through them, our nation itself.
From WIC's prenatal programs, to school and summer meals, and child
care food programs, participation in these programs has resulted in
positive health outcomes for low-income children and a 4 to 1 return on
investment.
Hunger is linked to lower student achievement and poorer behavioral
outcomes. These programs are powerful tools in providing greater
economic opportunities for at-risk youth, and helping them break free
of the tragic cycle of poverty.
While access to food is vitally important, equally important is
access to nutritious, high-quality food. About 30 million children rely
on the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. Students consume
up to half of their daily calories while at school. For many children,
school based meals are their primary source of nutrition.
Foods that are too high in fat and sugar have been linked to weaker
educational and behavioral outcomes. They also lead to childhood
obesity and long term health consequences as adults, including heart
disease, hypertension and diabetes. Approximately 10 percent of our
nation's healthcare spending goes toward treating conditions related to
obesity and unhealthy weight.
To address these challenges, in 2010, Congress enacted the Healthy,
Hunger-Free Kids Act. In addition to expanding access to child
nutrition programs, the law also updated and improved the nutritional
standards of the foods served to our children--standards that had not
been revised in over 15 years. Most importantly, the new standards are
based on scientific evidence, not politics or fiscal bottom lines. They
include weekly limits on calories, sugar, fat and sodium, require
fruits and vegetables at every meal and incorporate whole grains.
These changes are not promoting an exotic diet fad. They conform to
the healthy eating habits most of us in this room try to follow each
day. And, the vast majority of school districts - 93 percent - across
the country are successfully implementing the new healthy meals
standards today, with students eating more fruit and vegetables not
just at school, but outside of school too.
As we focus on healthier food for children, we cannot ignore that
child nutrition is also a national security issue. According to Mission
Readiness, a group of retired officers who support the new healthy
meals standards, 25 percent of young Americans are too overweight to
enlist in our nation's military.
I am pleased that today we will have an opportunity to discuss the
scope and impact of federal child nutrition programs and hopefully,
ways to improve and strengthen them. As we move through this process,
we must keep in mind the overarching goal of these nutrition programs:
to provide children with healthy foods that can support them as they
learn and grow, which in turn supports our national interests and long-
term economic prosperity.
I again thank everyone for being here this morning. With that, I
yield back to the Chairman.
______
Chairman Kline. Thank you, gentleman.
Pursuant to committee rule 7(c), all members will be
permitted to submit written statements to be included in the
permanent hearing record. And, without objection, the hearing
record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements
and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to
be submitted for the official hearing record.
I will now turn to introduction of our distinguished
witnesses.
And I recognize Mr. Brat to introduce our first witness.
Mr. Brat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, it is an honor to have our First Lady from
Virginia with us today. Thank you for being here.
I am going to introduce Mr. Duke Storen. Duke is a national
policy expert with extensive experience researching and
managing child nutrition programs. He hails from my Central
Virginia district, as well, and serves as senior director of
research for Share Our Strength.
Share Our Strength is an organization that works to end
childhood hunger in America by connecting kids to effective
nutrition programs. It also teaches low income families how to
shop and cook healthy food on a budget. Parents learn to shop
strategically, using nutrition information to make healthier
choices and cook good, affordable meals.
Before coming to Share Our Strength, Mr. Storen worked at
the USDA under two administrations managing child nutrition
programs and leading efforts to improve access to them. He has
22 years of experience fighting hunger and addressing poverty,
and has consulted with state governments on using technology to
improve program effectiveness and efficiency.
Today he will share some ideas on how to make federal
nutrition programs more effective and efficient.
Pleasure to have you with us today.
And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you.
Chairman Kline. Thank the gentleman.
It is a pleasure to have you with us today.
Now my pleasure to introduce Ms. Julia Bauscher. She is the
president of the School Nutrition Association and the director
of School and Community Nutrition Services for the Jefferson
County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Jefferson County Public School system serves an average
of 36,000 breakfast and 60,000 lunches each day across 145
locations. Under the leadership of Ms. Bauscher, the school
system has implemented Farm-to-School, breakfast in the
classroom, and at-risk supper program and, as it is eligible
for community eligibility provision, has begun to implement
this option, as well.
Welcome. Glad to have you with us.
And I now will recognize Mr. Scott again to introduce our
next witness.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And behalf of my colleague from Virginia, Mr. Brat, I am
pleased to introduce Dorothy McAuliffe, the first lady of the
Commonwealth of Virginia. In that position she has dedicated
her efforts to eliminating childhood hunger and improving
access to Virginia's fresh, locally-grown agricultural products
for all of our citizens.
She has identified food security and nutrition as key
elements necessary for educational success and building healthy
communities. She serves as the chair of the Commonwealth
Council on Bridging the Nutritional Divide, which focuses on
eliminating childhood hunger in Virginia, developing local
agricultural markets and promoting community efforts to link
locally-grown food, education, health and nutrition.
She also serves as the governor's designee to the Virginia
Council on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity
for Military Children, which assists in easing the transition
of children of military families into Virginia schools.
She also leads Virginia's efforts to encourage national
service as a pathway for solving challenges in local
communities and has long been devoted to arts and education,
serving on the Boards of Trustees of The Kennedy Center and The
Smithsonian Institute.
She earned a B.A. from Catholic University of America and
earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
So we are pleased to welcome Mrs. McAuliffe.
Chairman Kline. Thank the gentleman for the introduction
and Mrs. McAuliffe for being with us here today.
I will introduce today's final witness. There is no
pejorative in that, you know. We are glad to have first witness
and last witness.
Dr. Kathy Krey is the director of Research and assistant
research professor with the Texas Hunger Imitative at Baylor
University in Waco, Texas. In her role with Texas Hunger
Initiative, Dr. Krey oversees a diverse portfolio of research
and evaluation projects on food security topics. Dr. Krey and
her team measure and evaluate existing food programs with the
goal of conducting advocacy and outreach to the community about
the effectiveness of such programs.
Additionally, Dr. Krey serves as an adjunct faculty member
focusing on research methods and community sociology.
Welcome, Dr. Krey. We are glad to have you here.
I will now ask our witnesses to please stand and raise your
right hand.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
Please, be seated.
I can't ever expect a day when they wouldn't but there we
go.
[Laughter.]
Before I recognize you now to provide your testimony, let
me briefly explain our lighting system, which I know has been
explained to you before but now you see the little boxes there
in front of you.
You have 5 minutes to present your testimony. When you
begin, the light in front of you will turn green. When 1 minute
is left, the light will turn yellow, and when your time is
expired, the light will turn red. At that point, I will ask
that you wrap up your remarks as best as you are able. I don't
think I have ever gaveled down a witness for going a little bit
too long in their statement. We want to hear what you have to
say. But I do ask that you try to wrap up as best you can.
On the other hand, I have gaveled down more than one of my
colleagues for going past the 5 minutes because we want to try
to give everybody a chance to participate, get their questions.
Many of them, like me, have been visiting schools and we have
got a lot of questions. So, please do the best you can on that
little clock deal.
And, now, we will start. I will recognize Mr. Storen.
You are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MR. DUKE STOREN, SENIOR DIRECTOR, RESEARCH,
ADVOCACY, AND PARTNER DEVELOPMENT, SHARE OUR STRENGTH,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mr. Storen. Good morning, Chairman Kline, Ranking Member
Scott and members of the committee. Thank you for holding this
important hearing and inviting me to testify today.
It is truly an honor, as ending hunger in America is my
vocation, and it has been my life's work. I spent more than 20
years in every sector and at all levels, local, state, and
national and community organizations, state government, federal
government, at university, technology consulting, and now at
Share Our Strength, a national not-for-profit organization that
has been on the front lines of fighting hunger and poverty for
more than 30 years.
At Share Our Strength, we invest in and implement data-
driven programs in all 50 states, and we conduct research to
find and replicate solutions that are sustainable. Our No Kid
Hungry campaign seeks to end childhood hunger in America by
breaking down the barriers between programs like school
breakfast and the Summer Food Service Psummer food service
rogram, and the kids they are meant to serve.
We create public-private partnerships, working with states
and governors on both sides of the aisle to make the federal
programs work more efficiently and more effectively. At the
same time, we work to empower low income families to maximize
their food resources.
Why is this work so important? Because 16 million children
in the United States struggle with hunger, and we cannot have a
strong America with weak kids. Hunger might not be visible in
America as it is in other parts of the world but it lives
everywhere, and we have a responsibility to solve this problem.
Hunger affects one in five children. Hunger is in your
congressional district. Hunger is in our schools. For the first
time, more than half of all the children coming to school are
from low income families, and we know from our survey of
teachers that three out of four teachers regularly see the face
of hunger in their classrooms. And they understand the profound
connection between hunger, behavior, and learning. Educators
spend over $420 of their own money each year to help mitigate
this problem.
Childhood hunger is at its worst during the summer months,
when school meals are no longer available. Over four in 10 low
income parents report not having enough food to feed their
families during the summer. And that is why an effective summer
feeding program should be a priority in child nutrition
reauthorization.
But there is good news. Childhood hunger in America is a
solvable problem, and the child nutrition programs are central
to that solution, thanks to the support of you in Congress.
For decades, public-private partnerships have been at the
core of this solution, allowing community organizations,
schools, faith-based groups and private companies to come
together to address this issue. We know that none of these
groups could solve the problem of childhood hunger alone, but
by all of us working together, we can more efficiently leverage
the existing resources.
When kids can participate, the programs help them learn,
become healthier, and grow into stronger adults. For example,
the school breakfast program has a clear effect on academic
achievement. A Deloitte social impact analysis shows that
students who eat breakfast at school score 17.5 percent higher
on math tests, they attend more days of school, and, together,
these benefits make them 20 percent more likely to graduate and
earn an average of $10,000 more per year.
However, while these programs work for the kids that can
participate, too many eligible children can't participate
because of bureaucratic barriers, too much administrative
burden, and, for the summer months, a program that has not been
updated in over 40 years and serves fewer than one in six
children in need.
Through child nutrition reauthorization, Congress has an
opportunity to make practical policy changes to fix the summer
meals program and to make the other child nutrition programs
even more efficient.
It is unacceptable for any child in America to go hungry.
And thanks to a bipartisan commitment from Congress, we have
strong, sustainable programs in place to help struggling
families feed their kids and get to work. But it is critical
that we take this opportunity to create more efficiencies in
the federal nutrition programs so that we can let kids be kids.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today, and I look
forward to your questions.
[The statement of Mr. Storen follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Kline. Thank you, Mr. Storen.
Ms. Bauscher, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MS. JULIA BAUSCHER, PRESIDENT, SCHOOL NUTRITION
ASSOCIATION, DIRECTOR, SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY NUTRITION SERVICES,
JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
Ms. Bauscher. Chairman Kline, Ranking Member Scott, members
of the committee, on behalf of the School Nutrition
Association's 55,000 members, thank you for the opportunity to
discuss the vital role of school meal programs.
School nutrition professionals know the meals we provide
can be the most nutritious meals that many children receive. We
are passionate about supporting the 30 million students we
serve every day. Our job is to nourish them for a successful
school day and help them make healthier choices.
Too often in schools across the country, students line up
early at the cafeteria door on Monday mornings, hungry for
school breakfast after a weekend without enough food to eat at
home. We all know growling stomachs can easily distract
students, affecting their academic achievement.
With Congress' support, we have been working diligently to
meet students' nutritional needs so they can give teachers
their full attention. We are improving school lunch, expanding
breakfast, and offering more afterschool snacks, suppers and
summer meals so students have access to healthy meals, even
when school is not in session.
These supplementary meals not only ease food insecurity
among students, but also strengthens school meal programs. The
more meals and snacks we serve, the less likely our programs
will become a financial burden on school district budgets.
To ensure we contribute to healthier diets, SNA members
support new regulations limiting calories and unhealthy fat in
school meals. We are proud to offer more whole grains, larger
servings and a wider variety of fruits and vegetables, and
menus with less sodium.
Schools are committed to making these healthy choices
appealing with initiatives like Taste Test, Farm-to-School, and
Cornell University's Smarter Lunchroom Techniques. In my
district, we have steadily increased the quantity of local
foods we serve, and work with a local chef to make nutritious
recipes delicious.
School nutrition professionals do not want to lose ground
on these improvements. SNA will continue to support healthy
changes. But Congress must address the sharp increase in cost
and waste and the historic decline in student lunch
participation under the new rules.
For 30 years, the National School Lunch Program has grown
steadily. Under the new rules, 1.4 million fewer students
choose school lunch each day. Paid lunch participation has
fallen by 15 percent, as students opt out of healthy school
meals too often in favor of less nutritious alternatives.
SNA is encouraged to see participation in the free meal
category climb, with schools' access to the community
eligibility provision. In the 96 schools in my district
participating in CEP, daily lunch participation is up 8
percent, and no one has to worry about embarrassing a student
without lunch money.
However, schools outside of high poverty areas do not
qualify for CEP. These schools struggle the most with
decreasing participation which reduces revenue when costs are
rising. This year schools must absorb $1.2 billion in added
costs as a result of the new rules. Even in my district where
CEP has increased revenue, I am experiencing a decline in my
program's reserve fund.
School meal programs operate on extremely tight budgets. We
must cover labor and benefits, supplies, equipment, indirect
and other costs, leaving about $1.25 to spend on the food for
each lunch tray. This year, each half pint of milk costs my
program a nickel more than last year. That one nickel adds over
$700,000 in new expenses.
Meanwhile, a half-cup of fresh fruit, on average, costs me
38 cents. This year, I reluctantly added juice back to my high
school lunch menus as a cost saving measure. I haven't served
juice at lunch in 15 years in an effort to serve more fiber-
rich, whole fruits.
School meal programs can only cut so much. Without some
relief, increased costs will impact more than the school meal
programs; they will impact school district budgets as a whole.
SNA has been supporting members in addressing all these
challenges and will continue these efforts. We are working with
partners, including Share Our Strength, on initiatives like
best practices webinars and education sessions, and we are
working with USDA on its Team Up for School Nutrition Success
Initiative.
We appreciate the committee's recognition of the importance
of strong school nutrition programs and your consideration of
the school cafeteria perspective. SNA's members will be a
resource in ongoing discussions. We encourage all members of
Congress to visit a school cafeteria and talk with school
nutrition professionals about their unique successes and
challenges.
Thank you, again, for inviting me here today, and I am
happy to answer any questions.
[The statement of Ms. Bauscher follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Kline. Thank you, Ms. Bauscher.
Mrs. McAuliffe, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF MRS. DOROTHY S. MCAULIFFE, FIRST LADY OF VIRGINIA,
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR, COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND,
VIRGINIA, DEMOCRATIC WITNESS
Mrs. McAuliffe. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking
Member Scott and members of the committee for having me here
today.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here this
morning as you consider the reauthorization of our federal
childhood nutrition programs. We all agree that nothing is more
important to our future as a nation than the health, education
and well-being of our next generation.
I know that much of your deliberations around this
reauthorization will focus on what and how we serve our
students and families through our nutrition programs. But my
hope for my own testimony today is to make sure we remember why
these programs are so important.
I come to this, first and foremost, not as a nutritional or
educational expert, but simply as a mom. Programs like CEP,
school breakfast, and summer food service are the best way we
can help ensure our children in need take full advantage of the
educational opportunities our schools provide and our taxpayers
invest in.
In Virginia alone, we invest $5.5 billion in education. If
we want to capture our return on that investment, we have to
make sure our students are ready and able to learn when they
are in our classrooms. It is both staggering and tragic to
learn that, for the first time in at least 50 years, a
majority, 51 percent, of public school children in the United
States qualified for free and reduced lunches.
In Virginia, over 300,000 of our children are food
insecure. That's one in six of our children. The impact of
hunger and malnutrition on children is devastating, well
documented, and obvious to anyone who is a parent or works with
children.
For many children across the country and across Virginia,
the meals they receive at school are the most consistent and
best meal of the day. How do we prepare the next generation for
the jobs of the 21st century if kids aren't strong, healthy and
well educated? How can we expect our children to be hungry for
knowledge if they are just plain hungry?
I have heard from administrators and teachers all across
our state who agree that a hungry child cannot learn. One was
Susan Mele, the principal at Stewartsville Elementary School in
the rural community of Bedford County. Behavioral problems,
tardiness and absenteeism are just a few of the effects of
hunger Susan has witnessed in her school.
To respond to these challenges, Susan has combined
universal school breakfast with responsive classroom, an
approach to teaching that incorporates social-emotional
learning as part of the academic day. Susan has seen an
increase of 2 percentage points in overall student attendance,
plus a significant decrease in trips to the office and tardy
arrivals. And the result, Susan has seen a significant increase
in academic performance.
Pamela Smith is a principal at Highland View Elementary
School in Bristol in Southwest Virginia. Unfortunately, in a
school like Highland View where issues of neglect, trauma and
mental health are far too prevalent, Pamela has to meet the
most basic needs of her students before she and her staff can
even begin to teach.
Not only does Pamela make sure that her students start the
day with a healthy meal, which she does with great success, but
in many cases, the students need to be checked for bruises, be
given clean clothes for the day, have their teeth and hair
brushed, and just be loved and listened to.
What Pamela and her teachers and staff are doing for these
children is, frankly, above and beyond what any school should
be tasked with managing. But it is the reality in which far too
many must operate. Pamela has done a tremendous job of reaching
the needs of her students during the school year, but an area
of constant concern is the summer slide. After 9 months of
working to bring students up to grade level, 3 months of hunger
and unmet basic needs can set students back so far that it
leaves Pamela feeling like her kids are trapped in a consistent
cycle of one step forward and two steps back.
Working within the current restrictions of the Summer Food
Service Program, the challenge of reaching kids in a
predominantly rural community has made it tough to put the
brakes on the summer slide. As parents, we strive to be
supportive of our children's intellectual growth by encouraging
them to find their passions and pursue their dreams. It is a
tragedy that not all children in Virginia and the United States
look out on the world and see the endless possibilities that we
know should be there for them. But that is exactly why we are
here.
It is our responsibility as public servants to be advocates
for the children of this great nation. When three out of four
public school teachers say that they have students who
consistently come to school hungry, we have to ask ourselves
how can we better serve the children who need us most.
When students eat school breakfast, teachers report
profound results. Seventy-three percent see kids paying better
attention in class, 53 percent see improved attendance, and 48
percent see fewer disciplinary problems.
But with results like these, why are only half of the
students who are eligible for free or reduced-price breakfast
getting one? And why are only one in seven participating in the
summer meals program?
I am confident that your deliberations will uncover better
ways to serve children and families through our federal
nutrition programs. In Virginia, we look forward to partnering
with you to find and implement those solutions. Working
together, I know we can guarantee that all of our children are
fed and fed well.
Thank you very much. I look forward to the questions.
[The statement of Mrs. McAuliffe follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Kline. Thank you very much.
Dr. Krey, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF DR. KATHY KREY, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND ASSISTANT
RESEARCH PROFESSOR, TEXAS HUNGER INITIATIVE, BAYLOR UNIVERSITY,
WACO, TEXAS
Ms. Krey. Thank you.
Chairman Kline, Ranking Member Scott and members of the
committee, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
today to discuss the importance of child nutrition programs for
students and families.
My name is Kathy Krey and I am the director of research at
the Texas Hunger Initiative at Baylor University. THI developed
strategies to end hunger through research, education and
community development. We convene federal, state and local
government with non-profits, faith-based groups and business
leaders to increase food security.
Child nutrition programs are an important resource for
lessening the effects of food insecurity. These programs are
instrumental in ensuring that students from low income
families, especially, have access to healthy meals throughout
the year.
In Texas, it is estimated that 27 percent of children live
in food insecure households, which is higher than the national
average, meaning, they have difficulty meeting basic food needs
at least some time during the year. THI and its partners across
our state have fostered public-private partnerships to maximize
the reach and efficiency of child nutrition programs.
Public challenges like food insecurity pertain to more than
one jurisdiction by nature. Therefore, they require a response
that exceeds the capabilities and resources of any one
department or organization. And collaboration provides a way to
stretch resources to accomplish more with less.
The administration and coordination of child nutrition
programs present unique opportunities for public-private
partnerships to take shape. Through actors such as the Texas
Department of Agriculture, schools, non-profits, congregations
and foundations, community-based resources like funding,
volunteers and space are pooled and maximized.
The need for meals is especially high during summer months
for Texas children when school is not in session. The summer
meals program is one way to ensure that children receive health
meals. Schools, non-profits and local municipality service
sponsors and have meal sites within their regions.
In Texas, about 300,000 kids a day participate in the
summer meals program, and regular access to healthy meals in
the summer is important, not just for students' health, but for
students' academic well-being. We know that inadequate
nutrition can intensify summer learning loss, especially for
low income students who can lose up to twice the ground of
other students during summer months.
Additionally, after-school snacks and meals can help
relieve financial burdens for working parents and provide
support for schools and non-profits that run afterschool
enrichment programs so they can provide healthy meals. In
Texas, in 2014, we served an average of 51,000 meals a day in
afterschool programs.
In addition, school meal programs like school breakfasts
are important to a successful school day, especially for low
income children who might not have access to breakfast at home.
In Texas, more than 1.7 million students start their day with
school breakfast, including 1.5 million low income students.
Eating breakfast is associated with positive student outcomes,
including improved attention and memory, and decreased
disciplinary action.
School meals offer all students better opportunities to
succeed in school, especially children at risk of missing meals
at home.
Following are examples of public-private partnerships in
Texas that supplement and maximize federal funding and state
administration of child nutrition programs. In the Rio Grande
Valley, Catholic Charities utilizes the Summer Food Service
Program to sponsor over 75 summer meal sites. And they
collaborate with churches and non-profits in their area to
support these sites, including a local non-profit that provides
activities for kids and classes for adults in the summer, and a
national non-profit that provide books and educational
programming at summer meal sites.
These churches and non-profits coordinate their efforts by
sharing volunteers, serving meals and providing activities. In
East Texas, THI partners with the local community food
coalition and local farmers to redistribute excess food from a
local farmer's market to summer meal sites. The program
includes educating families on healthy eating habits and
cooking lessons. These partnerships link families with existing
services in the community to improve quality of life.
Child nutrition programs are necessary to curb the effects
of food insecurity. Public-private partnerships bridge local,
state and federal resources to maximize the efficiency and
reach of these programs so that children can stay fueled for
learning all year round.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
[The statement of Dr. Krey follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Kline. Thank you, Dr. Krey.
Thank you to all the witnesses for your testimony.
We will move now into a discussion, into questions. I will
start, and I will be put on the clock.
[Laughter.]
In my ever futile efforts to get my colleagues to contain
themselves.
Ms. Bauscher, this is kind of a strange question with what
I think is an obvious answer, but with all the rhetoric that is
out there, we ought to get this straight.
You represent an awful lot of professionals. Are there any
school food directors actually looking to serve unhealthy
meals?
Ms. Bauscher. Absolutely not.
Chairman Kline. Exactly. And, yet, we do have a lot of
discussion and we are trying to figure out what federal policy
we need in place that allows these directors to serve healthy
meals. I mentioned earlier, Mrs. McAuliffe and I had a brief
discussion before we started the hearing.
I visited a school in my district, you have suggested that
all of my colleagues do that, and I would concur. And I went to
their cafeteria and I was there at lunchtime and I watched how
it worked. It was a very well-organized program. But this
school is actually contemplating dropping out of the federal
program and just operating it on their own. This idea came from
kids, and so I sat down with four students, exceptionally
bright kids, they are all kids to me, young men and women in
the high school and they spoke highly of healthy meals. They
even talked about how they liked the fruits and vegetables.
There was some discussion about broccoli but, in general, they
really liked that. They just want the meals to be bigger and
better. And they really did a lot of research, these four kids,
and they pointed out some, what I think are just crazy
examples.
There was one young man sitting there, a senior, getting
ready to go off next year on a football scholarship and play
football. And his portion was exactly the same size as the kid
who weighed probably 100 pounds less and was not going off to
play football. So they had some consternation there and the
kids thought, this is a fairly well-to-do school, the kids have
money, and so what they are doing is just buying other food.
So they are getting the healthy meal but then they are
going and buying more food because they are not getting enough
to eat before they go off to football practice or to gym
practice or something like that.
So the school is actually considering dropping out of the
program. Have you heard of other schools who have either left
the program or are considering leaving the program because of
the constraints?
Ms. Bauscher. Yes, sir. I recently, this past weekend,
attended the school nutrition association of New Hampshire's
conference, and I have actually talked to two managers in a
district that recently went to a contract management company,
or off of the school lunch program, because they could not meet
the current requirements and satisfy students' needs.
Across the country, there have been a number of districts
or schools that have come off of the program, primarily in
areas where there is a low number of at-risk students. They
have got the money to buy other things, and, under the current
guidelines, it is difficult with the reimbursement that we
receive to meet the students' needs given the requirements, for
example, that we make them take a fruit or vegetable. If that
goes in the trash, then we are throwing resources away that
could be used to improve the program in other areas,
potentially meet some their needs, or to provide nutrition
education which teaches them the importance of eating healthier
choices.
Chairman Kline. I have used the word and hear the word used
many times, flexibility, that you and your professionals need
more flexibility. What does that mean to you?
Ms. Bauscher. Well, for example, again, a requirement the
students must take a half cup of a fruit or vegetables, we are
asking for flexibility to allow the school food authority to
determine whether or not students have to take that component.
The good news is, students across the country are becoming
more accepting and comfortable with a wide variety of fruits
and vegetables and SNA supports the larger serving sizes and
the wider variety that we offer. But, again, if that fruit or
vegetable goes in the trash, we are throwing valuable resources
away that could be used to improve the program in other areas.
Regarding the whole grain requirement, beginning July 1 of
this year, 100 percent of the breads and grains that we serve
have to be whole-grain rich. Most districts are exceeding or
were exceeding the requirement that at least 50 percent of the
whole grains be whole-grain rich.
But across the country in regions there are particular
items; where I live in the south, its biscuits. In the deeper
south it is biscuits and grits. In the northeast, it is that
New York-style bagel and in the southwest it is tortillas;
where many school food authorities struggle to find a product
available in their area that is acceptable to their students.
That is the flexibility that we need in order to plan and
serve meals that are appealing to our students, keep them in
the cafeteria. We, of course, realize how important it is for
them to consume our food and be ready for the teachers to teach
them.
Chairman Kline. Thank you.
My time has expired. I failed in my first test here.
Mr. Scott, you are recognized.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mrs. McAuliffe, thank you for being with us today. Can you
say a word about the need for a federal role in child
nutrition?
Mrs. McAuliffe. Well, I think it is clear, Congressman
Scott, you have been a witness to this for so many years, the
importance of it. Our military leaders, our generals and
admirals are a part of this conversation. They are a part of
ensuring that the nutritional standards stay in place, that we
work towards this goal of making sure that the food access is
there but also the food quality because we know that, yes, over
decades, we have relied and become a culture of convenience.
And so we are up against decades of maybe not going in the
right direction where we should in terms of nutritional
standards. But it will take time and it will take consistent
effort to ensure that our children are building lifelong habits
around choosing and having access to healthy food.
I think that any parent would recognize the story about,
you know, trying to introduce vegetables to your young toddlers
and that it takes more than one time, 2, 3, 4 years of
continual introduction of the right, proper and different
foods. We have a middle school son so I can speak to that. It
still goes on, he is 12 years old, but we still have these
conversations at dinner every night.
I would just want to say that those school nutrition
directors that we know, that we have met in Virginia, we are
seeing 94 percent of our schools that are saying that they are
meeting the guidelines, they have thought about implementation
over time, not all at once.
It is gradual, that is the way we know we introduce the
right habits and tastes and all of those kinds of things, and
we feel like, with the proper technical assistance, training
and guidance, that, with support and perhaps more resources, I
would argue, because we do understand. School nutrition
directors are operating on pennies a day to feed our children.
And that is tough and we know that.
So I would just say there is a long commitment in this
country, in this committee to making sure that our next
generation is strong and healthy. We know. It is what our
grandparents and our parents always told us, food is the best
medicine. So I would say that I appreciate the opportunity to
be here and to just ask that we seriously not think about
turning back but continuing to push forward.
Mr. Scott. Thank you.
Now, Dr. Krey, you have research on the effect of good
nutrition on academic success?
Ms. Krey. Yes. There is a body of literature that shows the
connection--
Mr. Scott. And also behavior?
Ms. Krey. Yes.
Mr. Scott. And long-term health?
Ms. Krey. Yes.
Mr. Scott. Could we get the benefit of that, could you
provide us with that research that you have?
Ms. Krey. Yes, I can follow up with you and--
Mr. Scott. Good.
Ms. Krey.--provide you those specific studies.
Mr. Scott. Thank you.
And, Mr. Storen, does your organization have research on
good nutrition effects on academic performance, behavior and
long-term health?
Mr. Storen. Yes, we do.
Mr. Scott. Okay, and if you could provide that, I would
appreciate it.
Mr. Storen. I would be happy to.
Mr. Scott. Okay.
Ms. Bauscher, does good nutritional food cost more?
Ms. Bauscher. It can cost more, especially the costs around
fruits and vegetables right now. Half cup serving of kiwi,
which is one of my students' favorite fruits, is currently 80
cents. Therefore, I have to limit how much I offer. I have
instructed my managers to continue to purchase kiwi; kids love
it, they will pick it up. But only to include a slice of it in
a fruit cup that contains other, less expensive fruit.
Mr. Scott. Now, when we increased the nutritional
standards, did the federal government reimbursement go up--
Ms. Bauscher. We received an additional--
Mr. Scott.--enough?
Ms. Bauscher.--six cents for each lunch.
Mr. Scott. Was that enough to pay for the additional
nutritional value?
Ms. Bauscher. That is not enough.
Mr. Scott. How much more should it have it been?
Ms. Bauscher. SNA is requesting 35 cents more for each
lunch and for each breakfast. That will help school food
authorities afford the foods that we must serve. But,
unfortunately, that won't make students consume it. And that is
what we are also focused on is finding ways to ensure students
will eat the healthy foods that we are making available to them
and not throw it in the trash, which is throwing away very
valuable resources.
Mr. Scott. There are different studies on how much food has
been thrown away.
Ms. Bauscher. Yes, there are. There are--
Mr. Scott. Some show that the food waste has not gone up
with the additional--
Ms. Bauscher. But there--
Mr. Scott.--nutritional--
Ms. Bauscher. There are also studies; Cornell University
study that showed there was an additional $684 million, or $1.3
million a day, of fresh fruits and vegetables going in the
trash. In our own member surveys, members have reported to us
especially fruits and vegetables are the most often components
that students are pitching as they go through the serving line.
And I think that we need to be concerned--
Mr. Scott. But there are studies on both sides of that
issue?
Ms. Bauscher. Yes, there are.
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired. We both
failed miserably, so, now I am cracking down on the rest of
you.
Mr. Thompson, you are recognized.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Chairman. Thanks for the precedent
that you have given, and your leadership. Thank you for this
hearing, actually. Incredibly important topic that we talk
about fueling our next generation and all future generations.
And thanks to all the panelists for being here for your
testimony, your passion, your expertise on an important issue.
Ms. Bauscher, you know, thank you to you and all those that
you represent in your association. I spend a lot of time at
schools, but I also spend times--the passion, the commitment of
the professionals who work in school nutrition, we meet in the
community, they come to the office, not just in the school, and
I appreciate their leadership and what they do in our schools.
I believe as a result of the most recent federal school
nutrition standards, we have seen a sharp decline in the
participation of school meal programs. I mean, that is what I
am seeing as I get around a lot of my congressional district,
which is just about a quarter of the state of Pennsylvania,
geographically.
Since fewer students are eating lunch in the cafeteria,
they are more at risk of under-consuming the recommended
amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and milk. And,
notably, 1.1 million fewer students drank milk with lunch
during the 2014 school year than compared to 2012.
I would like to reference a new report from the National
Dairy Council that highlights the nutritional importance of
milk and stresses concern for recent consumption declines.
Report underlines that milk is the number one source of nine
essential nutrients in young Americans' diets and provides
multiple health benefits, including better bone health, lower
blood pressure, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and
Type 2 Diabetes. If today's school students are falling even
further behind in milk consumption, it should be easy to agree
that action is needed.
You know, my question for you is, given your hands-on
experience and the hands-on experience of those that you
represent today, and the extensive background with school
nutrition, do you agree that this is a concern? And,
additionally, what can be done on a federal level to help you
increase the average daily participation in the school milk
programs?
Ms. Bauscher. First of all, the new meal requirements do
require us to offer fat free, flavored and unflavored, milk and
1 percent unflavored milk. These milk varieties have been
widely accepted by students in many, many programs. Many school
food authorities transitioned to those varieties in
anticipation of the new rules.
To the question of increasing participation in the
programs, again, I think that school food service directors and
school managers who are the most passionate people I know in
any profession, need a little bit of--we keep coming back to
flexibility in terms of being able to prepare and serve menu
items that appeal to students. That may mean the ability to
serve a refined grain tortilla instead of a whole grain
tortilla, or to offer grits at breakfast in the south. We
believe that we can increase participation in the program that
way.
And, most importantly, we want this program to be
acceptable and available to all students. I mentioned in my
testimony that participation in the free category has increased
and we are very grateful for that.
Pay participation is down, however, and one of the
unintended negative consequences of decreases in paid meal
participation is that free students who live in food insecure
environments and need healthy school meals may not participate
because they are afraid of the stigma associated with school
lunch and they do not want to be identified as needy or poor.
So, again, we want the flexibility to prepare and serve
meals to students that they will consume happily.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you. And asking for more flexibility is
what I hear anecdotally as--just consistently with every
meeting that I have.
Very quickly, I don't have a lot of time.
Mr. Storen, in your testimony, you say hunger might not be
as visible in America as it is in other countries. Can you tell
us what you mean by that and what it implies for hunger in
America?
Mr. Storen. Sure, I mean, I think some people have an
association that hunger is the equivalent to the images we see
of malnourished children in famine settings in other countries.
And, in America, you know, that is not the image of hunger.
Hunger is in the suburbs, hunger is in rural communities,
hunger is in schools, hunger is, you know, with kids zero to 5
before they come to schools.
And, so, when we talk about the solutions that we need to
put in place to address hunger in America, and what those
impacts are, we have got to find a way to make those programs
meet the specific needs of kids where they are based on their
developmental needs so that we can have the positive impacts
that we want. Because we have talked already about the positive
impacts of healthy nutrition on healthcare, on educational
attainment and workforce development.
THOMPSON. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Chairman Kline. Okay, thank you, gentlemen.
Mr. Hinojosa?
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Chairman Kline and Ranking Member
Scott.
I want to thank you all for bringing this panel to talk to
us about something very, very important and concerns that we
have in Congress.
The Centers for Disease Control tell us that over the past
three decades, childhood obesity rates have tripled. Nearly one
out of every five American children between the ages of 6 and
19 are obese. That is a national crisis that these programs are
designed to address.
Nutrition is directly connected to how well those children
do in the classroom, as stated before. Ask any teacher and they
will tell you that if children don't have nutrition in the
morning, if there is not food in their homes and they come to
school hungry, they start to act out in class because they
start to drift.
In addition to hunger, we are also fighting a national
concern, the scourge of childhood obesity. This concern is
found in all 50 states, in both young children and adolescents.
It affects our social and economic levels.
The school breakfast lunchroom programs make a difference
because they provide more than 50 percent of a student's food
and nutrient intake on school days. Child nutrition is at the
heart of our social safety net and the safety of all of our
children, and these programs have been overwhelmingly
successful and they have been cost effective.
Childhood obesity and diabetes are reaching epidemic
proportions in both the Hispanic community and the black
community across the nation. We must do more to help all young
people develop healthy lifestyles.
I could speak about the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas
where approximately 85 percent of the students in our region
participate in free and reduced meals in our school meal
program. According to USDA, one in every three Hispanic and
black households with children is food insecure and may not
know when the next meal will be available.
Twenty-seven percent of Texas children, as stated before,
one in four, live in food insecure households, the second
highest rate in the whole country. The source of this data is
found in USDA/Feeding America.
I was born and raised in Hidalgo County where more than
half of the residents are on food stamps, and they have all
these children who are participating. That is why I fully
support these new child nutrition programs and believe we
should continue to strengthen them, not to weaken them.
My first question is to First Lady McAuliffe. What are the
effects on children that Virginia has seen because of your
efforts on summer food and school breakfast?
Mrs. McAuliffe. Well, thank you for the question, sir. We
have seen success but we know we need to continue to build on
success. I would say that I agree, school nutrition directors,
our cafeteria staffs are probably the hardest working--I
shouldn't single out any group because everyone in our public
schools are working very hard to ensure that our children do
well.
But I think that where we have seen success and we have
seen it broadly, we have all visited a lot of school breakfast
and school lunch lines, and the places where, as I mentioned
before, we are seeing gradual implementation and bringing along
the ideas and the curriculum with nutrition is really
absolutely critical to success.
We have seen teachers, we have talked with teachers where
children don't know where a carrot comes from. They don't know
what a real peach looks like. And I think that is a faraway
place from where we want to be as a nation. But when we--
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you for--
Mrs. McAuliffe. So when we think about--
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you for your answer. My time is running
out, and I want to make statement so it will be in the record.
Mrs. McAuliffe. Yes.
Mr. Hinojosa. It was back in a past administration between
2004 and 2011 that we discovered that there had been some
national food distributors to our national food program who
were fixing prices, and, consequently, bringing the cost of
much of the food to our school lunch programs. And Congress
refused to remove those companies--national names that I won't
name, but it is in the record that we wanted to remove them
from approved national firms that could get the contracts for
food distribution. And that, naturally, is something that we
need to readdress again and see if we can bring down the food
cost.
But let us not say that $1 billion increase as was pointed
out by Ms. Bauscher is too much because I was voting to approve
for many, many years, 12, 13 years, spending $10 to $12 billion
a month in our war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So $1 billion is
not much.
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Guthrie?
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate
being here and having Ms. Bauscher here from Kentucky and,
First Lady, I will say I drive every now and then--about twice
a year and it is always a pleasure to drive through Virginia.
What a beautiful state.
Mrs. McAuliffe. Please stop by some time.
Mr. Guthrie. We do stop and see some of our heritage there.
You have got a lot of heritage and we appreciate that. Of
course, until 1792, we were Virginians in Kentucky, as well.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Guthrie. Ms. Bauscher, you know, this is important. I
am glad that you are here because, you know, I hear from a lot
of school nutritionists and pros and cons of what is going on
and what is common is every single one of them is dedicated to
kids eating better. And just trying to figure out how we make
this work in the situation that we are in.
And, so, following this, I hope we will invite you, but,
following this, I am going to do four roundtables back home
with school nutritionists, so I will be in I think
Elizabethtown and also in Jessamine County--or Bullitt County,
and then Bowling Green and Owensboro, so any of those, you will
be welcome to make. Because we just want to hear from the
practitioners who are really putting this--and, as I said, all
of them to the one, that we want kids to eat better. But there
are some issues that we need to address.
And, so, I have a couple of questions for you. And since
the rollout of the new meal standards, you know, I have heard
from administrators in my district that say there is an
increase in students bringing their lunch to school, as well as
increase in food waste. And when your district partnered, I
believe, with a local chef to try to increase the appeal of the
nutritious food, how did your students respond? Or just talk
about that program. Did you see a change in participation and
how much more did it cost?
Ms. Bauscher. We worked on a contract basis with a local
chef, a wonderful chef, who not only helped us revise our
recipes but also did healthy food demonstrations for students
during the school day and for parents at evening events. I
think it is important that we teach families how to prepare
healthy meals at home.
So we worked with him. We established also something called
Student Nutrition Advisory Councils which many districts
implement that strategy for ensuring input from students so
that before we produce a recipe in a vast quantity, I have a
central kitchen so I prepare 200 gallons of some products at a
time, we know that it is going to appeal to students. So we
test taste products with those students.
We also work to provide samples of new menu items in the
cafeteria, and one of my priorities for next school year is to
continue develop partnerships with school site-based PTAs and
other parent groups that can help us do that sampling in the
cafeteria because we don't have enough hands to do that.
It does increase participation and pickup of those items in
some instances. But, overall, I have had an increase in
participation because I participate in CEP. In my non-CEP
schools, my participation is still off at breakfast and lunch
by 3 percent.
So we are trying new items, encouraging them to take new
items. I agree with Mrs. McAuliffe, we must teach children why
it is important to eat healthy. We know we are helping them
establish lifelong eating habits and we take that very
seriously and passionately.
Mr. Guthrie. Yes, I know you do. And you also, during the
out-of-school--I know, Jefferson County had probably--well,
there are six members of Congress, one has Jefferson County, so
you probably have six of the Commonwealth students. So, I mean,
you have the volume and they geographically connect. I mean,
they are close to each other so the volume.
I know you partner with private entities for when school is
not in session. Can you describe some of those programs? Summer
and when school is not in session?
Ms. Bauscher. Yes, we prepare our summer meals in our
central kitchen. We provide those meals to Willow Metro
government; they are also a summer sponsor through the
Community Action Partnership Program. We provide meals to them.
Two years ago, I started a bus stop cafe. Our
transportation department donated a bus to us and we outfitted
it to provide summer meals. We go throughout the community to
at-risk neighborhoods, mobile home parks, public pools, the
Greenwood boat dock on the Ohio River, and feed kids through
that program. It has been tremendously received and very
successful.
We added a second bus last summer. We have not added a bus
for this summer but we are partnering with a group that is
donating books to kids and wants them to have access to them in
the summer, so there is going to be a book buggy following the
bus. Local arts groups have contacted us and want to be able to
provide some arts programming for students during the summer at
the sites where we are providing meals.
Mr. Guthrie.--I live in Bullitt County--
Ms. Bauscher. Great partnerships.
Mr. Guthrie.--so I am right next to you. It looks like I
don't have enough time but I was in Europe at a NATO meeting,
and one of the Europeans were saying, you know, the problems in
America with your hunger is not what you just said, Mr. Storen
described as obesity.
Well, I just lost my time.
So I was just kind of wondering if it was an access to food
or proper food. I am out of time. He is going to gavel--
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired.
Ms. Fudge?
Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I thank
you all for your testimony today.
Just want to make a couple of comments before I get to my
question.
One, certainly, we all understand that we can do better,
that we can find better ways to feed hungry children. But I do
also want to say that I can understand why wealthy school
districts do have a problem because these programs were not
designed to help wealthy kids. And so we have to look at it
from that perspective. So I can understand if they want to opt
out it might be difficult because it is not designed for them.
Now, let me just get to my questions. And I am going to ask
everybody the same question. There was a lot of discussion
about summer feeding programs which I am especially concerned
about because I do represent a district that has more than a 20
percent poverty rate, and in my schools, it is significantly
higher, of poor children. So if each one of you can just tell
me what you think we can do to make our summer feeding program
better. Just one thing you think will make a change, I would
appreciate that, as succinctly as possible.
Mr. Storen?
Mr. Storen. Sure. Thank you. I think that states and
communities need more options in terms of the way that summer
benefits are delivered. Now, there is a single, sort of uniform
congregate feeding model, and that works great for some but it
doesn't work at all for most. And, so, Congress authorized in
2010 a series of demonstration projects to look at alternative
service models. There is great data coming out of the third-
party evaluations and I think in there is a roadmap to giving
states more options so that, you know, a city can do it one way
and a rural community can do it another way.
Ms. Fudge. So we have the data, we just need to use it?
Mr. Storen. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. Fudge. Thank you.
Ms. Bauscher. And I would agree with Mr. Storen's comments,
more options for delivering that program would be very helpful.
I know, particularly at my bus sites which are outside, one of
the problems we face is the extreme heat in the summertime. It
would be great if the students could take those meals with them
on a regular basis. That would be very helpful.
I think we could also look at the paperwork involved in
implementing these programs. If that could be streamlined in
some fashion. Improving the way in which we approve sites for
participation in the program would also be helpful.
Ms. Fudge. Thank you.
Mrs. McAuliffe. I agree. I agree congregate feeding sites
really need to be looked at, especially critical in our rural
communities. It makes it so difficult.
Easing the paperwork and how we qualify our kids. The
paperwork is done. It is done in our schools, our community
centers, our Boys & Girls Clubs, our local partners need to
have, why do we have to go through extra layers of identifying
those kids in need. And I think transportation I will, again,
say, with those congregate feeding sites, and looking at that
is really critical.
Ms. Fudge. So do you think that the lack of transportation
is one of the problems that keeps the participation low? I am
really trying to figure out how do we increase participation?
In my state, only 10 percent of eligible kids participate in
the summer program. Nationally, I think that average is about
16 percent. How do we get that participation up?
Dr. Krey?
Ms. Krey. Yes, as Dr. Storen mentioned, in Texas we were
one of the states that had one of those demonstration pilots
that USDA tested, and we saw that was effective in reducing
food insecurity by about an extra 20 percent and that it helped
reduce barriers like transportation, which is significant,
especially in rural parts of Texas and where we do have extreme
heat, additionally, that can be a barrier.
Ms. Fudge. Well, I am glad to see that something that we
did worked. I saw the federal government actually did a good
thing by trying to determine how we make these programs better,
so I thank you for that.
Mrs. McAuliffe, you talked about a program that you helped
start, Eat Smart, Move More, which is very similar to our Farm-
to-School program. Why do you think that these programs are
effective at getting young people to eat better?
Mrs. McAuliffe. I think that the curriculum piece is
absolutely critical, and so when you bring--the Farm-to-School
piece is also a wonderful way to blend the nutrition with
agriculture, education, bioscience, technical jobs in the ag
area, you know. Agriculture is our number one private industry
in Virginia. We are very lucky that way.
So to be able to talk about why food is important, not only
for your own personal health and well-being but as part of our
larger economy in looking at the jobs of the future and where
your career track might be, and knowing where a carrot and a
peach really come from, I think, is absolutely critical for our
children and the more we talk about it as part of the
curriculum, the more those conversations carry over into the
cafeteria.
Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, gentlelady.
Mr. Rokita, you are recognized.
Ms. Rokita. I thank the Chairman. I thank the witnesses for
their testimony and their leadership on this issue. It is
really appreciated.
I want to focus some of my questions around the
bureaucracy, maybe in these programs generally and what you do
and maybe even if you see some waste, fraud and abuse.
But, Mr. Storen, starting with you, you mentioned
bureaucratic inefficiency in your testimony. Can you give me
some specific examples?
Mr. Storen. So I would say that one place where I think
there is inefficiency and duplication is in the administration
of the programs that are delivered--
Ms. Rokita. Is your mike on? Are these mikes on?
Mr. Storen. Thank you. I am sorry about that.
I think one place where we can increase efficiency and
address some administrative duplication is in the delivery of
the programs that are implemented through those public-private
partnerships with churches and Boys & Girls Club, YMCAs and
food banks.
During the school year, as Dr. Krey referenced, many of
these programs have afterschool meals programming where they
provide a healthy snack to kids. If they want to provide that
same child with a snack at the same place at the same time with
the same programming afterschool is out, then they have to flip
to an entirely new USDA program. It might have a new state
agency. They have to fill out a new application, have a new
site inspection, have different reporting requirements.
Ms. Rokita. But, Mr. Chairman, they are run by the same--it
is the USDA in both cases in your example, right?
Mr. Storen. That is correct. But the way that the law is
structured has different authorizing language for the summer
feeding program and for the CEP at-risk program. So if we want
these great community organizations to continue to provide
services and focus on kids instead of focusing on paperwork, I
think there is a real opportunity there to create some
efficiencies so we have one program for community organizations
out of school time.
Ms. Rokita. Thank you, Mr. Storen.
My time is limited so let me go on to Ms. Bauscher. Thank
you, again, for your leadership.
Obvious constitutional issues aside for a second, one of
our duties is to ensure the programs we are authorizing are
actually running effectively and in accordance with the law.
You mentioned cost, I believe, in your testimony, especially
with the new regulations. But do you see or do your members see
any pattern, waste or fraud going on or abuse of any kind in
these programs?
Ms. Bauscher. I do not. And I do not know of anyone who
does.
Ms. Rokita. Are you looking for it?
Ms. Bauscher. Oh, absolutely, yes.
Ms. Rokita. How?
Ms. Bauscher. Well, we do that by regularly monitoring what
occurs in the cafeteria at the point of sale to assure that we
are offering reimbursable meals. We do training all of the time
to make sure that our cashiers understand what the requirements
are.
Ms. Rokita. Are all the sign ups legitimate? Is the
eligibility`--
Ms. Bauscher. The eligibility--we do verification and--
Ms. Rokita. How?
Ms. Bauscher. Well, we pull a sample of the applications
that we approve and we send letters to households asking them
to provide proof of income. And we do that if anyone in the
community were to report a potential case of fraud. We can
verify for cause. So we do that regularly.
To Mr. Storen's message about streamlining this and making
it more effective, I think one of the things that many states
are doing and I am very fortunate to be in Kentucky because we
do an excellent job of directly certifying students for free
meal benefits--
Ms. Rokita. What does that mean?
Ms. Bauscher.--which means that they are receiving certain
other types of federal assistance, including Medicaid, some
forms of Medicaid we can automatically, categorically qualify
the students in the household for free meals, and that
decreases the errors.
Ms. Rokita. In that situation, the school would be out of
the business of pushing the application out to the parents or
whatever. You drill into a database of some sort--
Ms. Bauscher. Yes. Now, we still have to collect
applications for those students who may not be directly
certified who aren't receiving other federal benefits--
Ms. Rokita. Oh, so the school is still pushing
applications?
Ms. Bauscher. Yes.
Ms. Rokita. Thank you--
Ms. Bauscher. But, in my district, 55 percent of my
students are directly certified for direct free meal benefits.
That means 55 percent of my households don't have to complete a
free and reduced meal application in order for their students
to receive benefits.
Ms. Rokita. Do you think that is a good policy?
Ms. Bauscher. Yes, I do.
Ms. Rokita. Why?
Ms. Bauscher. Again, in my district and in many districts
around the country, we have got very diverse communities where
sometimes there are communication barriers. We often work with
students on helping, you know, having the student translate to
their parents for us to help them complete an application. They
are afraid of the process and intimidated by the process so--
Ms. Rokita. I am out of time. Thank you.
Ms. Bauscher. Okay.
Chairman Kline. Thank the gentleman.
Mrs. Davis, you are recognized.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of
you for being here.
I wanted to follow up on the discussion on summer meals
earlier and, to you, Mr. Storen, I know you have had some
experience with this. What role can the electronic benefit
transfer play? We know that the pilot program has been seen as
effective and the issue really here, in addition to some
others, I think, how do you bring that to scale? And what
issues do you think need to be addressed?
Mr. Storen. Sure, thank you for your question.
I do think the evaluations from the summer EBT projects
showed the most promise as a new option for service delivery
for state agencies, you know, reached upwards around 90 percent
of the target audience. It decreased food insecurity by over 20
percent and over 33 percent for very low food security. It led
to healthier food consumption; children consumed 12 percent
more fruit and vegetables, 30 percent more whole grains, 10
percent more dairy.
And I think the reason that this program can be brought to
scale is twofold. One is it implemented through an existing
infrastructure. So the benefit is added to either a SNAP or a
WIC EBT card. Those infrastructures have been built and proven
to be successful and have great integrity. And, so, you can
bring those to scale because they are already present.
The second is, you know, a third of all the low income
children in the United States live in communities where the
summer meals isn't even operate--
Mrs. Davis. Right.
Mr. Storen. By law, it has got to be in a concentration of
poverty of at least 50 percent for your reduced-price kids. And
with the suburbanization of poverty that we have now in the
United States, we see more poor children in suburbs than we do
in urban areas or anywhere else.
And then the challenge that the First Lady McAuliffe talked
about in rural communities. So by overcoming transportation
barriers and providing a benefit to children where they are,
and we know from our own research of low income families, that
80 percent of children are at home in the summer.
Mrs. Davis. Yes.
Mr. Storen. So meeting kids where they are instead of
trying to bring kids to a place where they can't get.
Mrs. Davis. Yes, oh, I appreciate that. I mean, we often
talk about the educational loss in the summer and I have always
wondered to what extent that is that kids are just basically
hungry throughout the summer. And so even the kinds of games
and toys and options they might have, which are maybe, you
know, limited compared to a lot of other children who have
pretty enriched summer experiences, they really aren't able to
participate as well. Thank you. We need to really work on that.
One of the things we know about the participation of
schools, I mean, generally speaking, 93 percent of school
districts, I think, are exceeding the new nutrition standards.
But for that smaller percentage that are not, what kind of
trends do you see, and, I guess, to Ms. Bauscher, what stands
out the most? We have talked about the need for flexibility, we
have talked about the need for food that kids identify with,
and that they feel more comfortable eating.
Are there some other issues that you see that really need
to be addressed so that, for many of those districts, we are
not just doing an overall waiver for them. I know for even San
Diego Unified School District, there are some issues, and I am
curious about where you see some of the trends. I mean, what is
it that is holding people back?
Ms. Bauscher. Again, it is their inability to provide foods
that their students are familiar with and will consume. Those
are the primary concerns. We also see some concerns around
providing program simplification which--
Mrs. Davis. I am sorry, programs of?
Ms. Bauscher. Simplification--
Mrs. Davis. Oh, okay.
Ms. Bauscher.--to Mr. Storen's point so that the programs
are easy to access. One of our policy requests or asks is for
more money so that we can afford--
Mrs. Davis. Is technical assistance a major problem? Do
schools need more help or support in trying to figure this out?
Ms. Bauscher. There are districts that need more support--
or technical assistance, and SNA has been one of the leaders in
offering our members that support, again, through best
practices webinars, education sessions offered at our
conferences. We have over 100 education sessions scheduled for
our summer conference this year. Our state affiliates are also
providing training. So that equips food service directors and
food service managers with strategies they can use to encourage
kids to make healthier choices, but it doesn't control the cost
of those items often, and it doesn't make kids consume them.
So, yes, training and technical assistance is important but it
won't solve all of our problems.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
Chairman Kline. Gentlelady's time is expired.
Dr. Heck?
Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for being
here.
I represent the Clark County School District in Southern
Nevada where about 58 percent of its almost 320,000 students
are on free and reduced lunch.
We are fortunate in my community to have the Three Square
food bank organization that provides a lot of services to our
students, including backpack for kids, so they go home on
Friday with a backpack of food to carry them through the
weekend. They participate in feeding for America's Kids Cafe
and they also provide summer feeding services.
Mr. Storen, you have mentioned that too many eligible
children can't participate in some cases during the summer
months because the program has not been updated in 40 years.
What types of updates are necessary so that more children can
participate?
Mr. Storen. Thank you. I think the updates that we are
looking for are more tools in the toolbox, more options for
state agencies and communities than only having a congregate
feeding model. Again, that works great where it works but it
doesn't work for most kids. And so having summer EBT as one of
those options to reach children in communities where it is not
practical to have a congregate feeding site.
Being able to send children home with a meal on the
weekends, like the food bank does in your district, being able
to deliver meals to children at home, having waivers from
congregate feeding when there is extreme heat.
So, you know, every community is different. There are
different weather conditions, there are different resources,
there is a different geography. We don't need a single
approach; we need tools so that approach can be customized by
the state and that local community to meet their needs, and
just having more options.
Mr. Heck. You also talked about, you know, the importance
of public-private partnerships, several of you did. In your
experience, is there a specific model that seems to work better
than another or a specific model that is fraught with peril and
doesn't work out as well?
Mr. Storen. No, I think that, you know, the child nutrition
programs have a long history of successful implementation with
public-private partnerships but those public-private
partnerships look different in different communities. I don't
think we can assign any one model and say, you know, all
churches are great, or all churches aren't great, or every food
bank, you know, should be the only ones providing afterschool
meals.
I think, you know, the resources and the community
organizations are different. I think it is important to pay
attention to program integrity, understand the needs in the
community, and to come together and what we stress is a
collaboration. We bring stakeholders from the public and the
private sector together to share their strength, to figure out
what they can contribute to solving the problem. And I think it
is that level of planning and collaboration that is most
effective.
Mr. Heck. And I think what I have taken from most of the
answers to several of the other questions is that the
underlying request is really to have increased flexibility that
will allow you to accomplish many of these goals and in an
environment that is not as restrictive as current law.
Mr. Storen. I would say that is the case for the summer
feeding program and then I think there are some administrative
efficiencies in the other programs.
Mr. Heck. Right, well, Mr. Chair, unlike yourself, I will
yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman Kline. You are my hero. Thank you.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Kline. Ms. Bonamici?
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Scott, for
holding today's hearing.
And thank you to all the witnesses for being here to talk
about this important issue that has historically been
bipartisan. I am really looking forward to working with all my
colleagues to take ambitious steps to ensure that fewer
children have to worry about where they are going to get their
next meal.
And I really appreciate Mr. Rokita bringing up the
efficiencies and thank you for your ideas on that. Let us make
this work better for more children.
My home state is already doing some great work but still
facing some challenges. Just recently our governor signed a
bill to eliminate copays for school lunch. I know that other
states, Minnesota, Colorado, Vermont, have some variations of
this. It is going to affect roughly 30,000 Oregon children who
had qualified for reduced-price lunch; it will now be free
lunch. We are removing a barrier for many of them.
We also have been doing an Oregon summer EBT for children
program. The pilot programs doing EBT transfers for children
have seen a significant, up to a third, reduction in child
hunger through this program. It has worked well in our pilot in
Oregon. We should talk about expanding that because with that
significant reduction in hunger, there is a lot of potential
there especially with the summer programs.
So it is clear that we need to take action and I know that
many of you discussed, of course, how it is difficult for
children to learn if they are hungry. It is really in our best
interest. In a country like ours where we have so much, it is
just wrong for students to be hungry, for children to be
hungry.
I thank Representative Fudge who apparently has left for
her work on Farm-to-School programs, really important in our
state of Oregon, I actually joined one of my colleagues and had
lunch at an elementary school that does a Farm-to-School
program. We had great fun. It was really good food, too.
So there is, again, a win-win to work on those. Actually,
it is a win-win-win because the children get more nutritious
food, it supports local agriculture, but it also educates
students about the source of their food.
So I wanted to focus on childcare settings and talk about
the importance of making sure that children in child care
settings can get a late afternoon snack or supper when their
parents have to work late, for example.
So I want to ask you, Mr. Storen--first of all, thank you
for acknowledging that this is a shared responsibility. It is
an important role for Congress but there are also a lot of
partnerships with our faith community, our non-profits, our
parents.
Can you talk, Mr. Storen, about some of the steps that we
could take to promote a provider's participation in the Child
and Adult Care Food Program? Child nutrition programs provide a
great opportunity to educate families and promote healthy
eating and I am wondering a little bit about these CAFPCC
programs could help educate programs, serve as models.
I imagine that there is a capacity there to provide
nutrition education, might vary a little bit between a large
center and a smaller daycare home, but is there a role for us
to support nutrition and nutrition education in CAFPCC? And
others could weigh in, as well. Would like your thoughts on
that program, please.
Mr. Storen. Sure, absolutely. I think the Child and Adult
Care Food Program, you know, funds reimbursement for meals in a
variety of settings, childcare settings, at-risk afterschool
meals, adult daycare, homeless shelters, and, you know, that
meal reimbursement, you know, it doesn't happen in a vacuum. It
happens as part of a strong program, and those programs can
look very different depending upon the age of the child and the
setting.
Rep. Bonamici. Right
And so I do think that there is great opportunity for
nutrition education to be part of the programming, either
directly for the participants, perhaps if they are, you know,
school age or older, or for the caregivers. I know we run a
nutrition education program called Cooking Matters, and it is a
wonderful 6-week cooking course, you know, that teaches
families the food skills they need to shop for and prepare
healthy food on a budget.
And we also do these grocery store tours where we take
people to the grocery store and teach them per unit pricing.
And we have partnered with child, and adult care providers of
the childcare settings to teach those caregivers of children in
that setting those skills. It has been really successful and I
think the afterschool meals programs--
Ms. Bonamici. Absolutely. Before my time expires, do you
have any thoughts on--there is some discussion about changing
the area eligibility test for Tier 1 reimbursement for Child
and Adult Care Food Program? For example, what if it changed
from its current 50 percent to 40 percent so if reimbursement
were offered to providers in areas where 40 percent of the
children qualified for reduced price as opposed to 50 percent,
how would that change access? Do you have thoughts on that?
Mr. Storen. Yes, I don't have the numbers in front of me. I
would be happy to try to get back to you after the hearing. It
would certainly increase access because there would be more
opportunities--
Chairman Kline. Gentlelady's time has--
Ms. Bonamici. My time is expired.
Chairman Kline.--expired.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you.
Chairman Kline. Mr. Brat?
Mr. Brat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I was going to tee up a couple softballs for my friends on
the panels but the more I listen the more I am kind of a Johnny
One Note. With an economics background, I think I am going to
go there again.
Flexibility seems to be the key, and so I am going to ask
this to all four of you, and you are not going to like the
question because there are no good answers coming, but I want
to hear you address flexibility.
Public-private is in the air and I am going to give you a
little hint as to what is coming on the public-private
relationship coming up with my comments. I met with the
governor of Virginia yesterday; he is doing a great job, going
to China and India. They are growing at 7 percent; we are
growing at 2 percent.
And in this country, defense sequestration is taking a huge
toll on Virginia, and Virginia's economy, and so everybody
wants to know what are we going to do about resources across
the board on this. There is no money. Right? There is no money
for anything. And I said, well, if you think that is bad, I got
worse news for you. Four programs under the federal government
will consume the entire federal budget by 2032. Right? So you
go to the U.S. debt clock, make sure I am not fibbing, right?
Factcheck does it for me weekly in my newspaper so you can go
check it out. But the country is $18 trillion in debt. We have
$127 trillion in unfunded liabilities at the federal level.
Four programs under law, the entitlement programs, Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Bush prescription drug plan, are
two-thirds of the budget currently. Those four programs will be
100 percent of the budget by 2032. So that is the context we
are all operating in. And so I have got a tough question for
you.
It seems to me the solution isn't food. The solution seems
to me, as an economist, is getting the parents engaged in the
private sector with meaningful jobs so that they can provide
food and are educated to solve the problem. So I think if we
are aiming for the wrong policy target, we are going to hit it.
And it is the wrong answer.
So the problem isn't food, the problem is how do you have
gainfully employed parents who are educated to the point that
they can provide food for their kids? Because we all care about
the kids. And that is the goal.
And so I am just kind of laying that out to--you have got
16 years to solve that problem, right? It is not going to be a
matter of finding resources and funding for food at the federal
level, given the numbers I just gave you. So put on your
creative thinking cap. How do you think about that problem?
What do you got? We have got 16 years before four programs take
up 100 percent of the federal budget to solve this problem.
Any ideas? Go in order.
Mrs. McAuliffe. Thank you, my friend from Virginia. I would
love to answer that question because we do know that jobs are
the ultimate goal. That is the ultimate goal. Families want to
provide for themselves. Families should. That is our goal.
However, this committee is called Committee on Education
and Workforce. We don't have a workforce to attract the jobs in
the 21th century, if we have kids who cannot take advantage of
the education we are providing for them, $5.5 billion in
Virginia. So if we look at the moral imperative but there is an
economic imperative here, as well. That is my answer.
Anybody else? I can keep talking if you want.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Brat. And the economic imperative, I mean, I am newly
elected. I have been going around to all the high schools and I
am asking the high schoolers, senior graduating high schoolers,
you know what a business is? Half the hands go up. I said,
good, now put your hands way high in the air because I am going
to ask you a question about business. Every hand goes down,
right?
And so business and economics, that is the imperative, but
at the school level, what are we doing, right, to get kids
equipped, 20, 25 percent of the kids are going go on to 4-year
colleges. The rest are not and so food is an issue, that is an
issue, so, I mean, I am interested in hearing some creative
thinking on how we solve some huge education problems.
That is our committee, to get kids ready for that workforce
and, in the short run, I am with you. I mean, I did economic
regression stuff on all this inputs to what creates higher SOL
scores in Virginia for 20 years. So I know the inputs, the
cause whatever. So, in the short run, it is an answer. In the
long run, I don't think it is a sustainable answer.
Mrs. McAuliffe. I would just say in the short term, I don't
think we can afford to have hungry kids in our schools.
Chairman Kline. Gentleman's time has expired.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Kline. Well, you had 7 seconds to go there.
Mr. Courtney, you are recognized.
Mr. Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for
starting sort of the opening bell here for the next
reauthorization effort which you and I and a number of us up
here were around for the last go around.
And, Mr. Scott, when his opening remarks noted that this
program was created in 1946 in the wake of World War II and it
was the Richard Russell Defense School Nutrition Act because
the country found to its, I think, horror, that draftees were
malnourished, and that this was seen as a sort of effective
national federal strategy to sort of address that issue.
Fast forward to the last reauthorization, again, we had
military testimony that was in those tables there, talking
about the fact that one out of four enlistees were rejected
because they were too heavy to serve. And the need for national
nutritional standards was something that, again, the military
in some ways sort of cut through a lot of the, you know,
indecision in terms of getting a bill done.
In 2013, five four-stars from every branch, along with 450
of their senior military colleagues, issued a report called
Retreat Is Not An Option, again, showing that the trend lines,
in terms of, you know, what they are seeing coming in the door
was still challenging and, again, I think, you know, expressed
a pretty powerful support for maintaining the nutritional
standards that were in the 2010 bill.
So, Mr. Chairman, first of all, for the record, I would
like to have Retreat Is Not An Option entered into the record.
[The information follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Kline. Without objection.
Mr. Courtney. Thank you.
And, so, you know, obviously, there has been a lot of back
and forth since the law was passed. I visited the school
cafeterias. Connecticut, you know has had some struggles, you
know, with the transition. I think Secretary Vilsack has
listened to people, in my experience. I mean, he did make some
adjustments as we sort of moved along.
But I guess the question I would like to pose to Ms.
Bauscher and Mrs. McAuliffe is, you know, on this question of
nutritional standards. I mean, the federal taxpayer is in on
this. We know from the, you know, the forensics of the school
lunch program that it had a national objective. It had a
national mission, you know, that even goes into our national
defense, and, you know, I mean, when we talk about state
flexibility, are we talking about basically retreating from
what the military leadership is saying we need to maintain, or
we are talking about, you know, maintaining standards. Anything
can use improvement, but, again, I was just wondering what your
association's position is.
Ms. Bauscher. So, let me first say, SNA supported the
Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, and we support the Healthy Hunger
Free Kids Act today. What we are asking for is under the most
restrictive requirements in the law, primarily around grains
and fruits and vegetables, some sensible flexibility that will
allow districts to operate programs in a fiscally-sound way.
As I mentioned, when Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act began, I
had a 3-month operating balance. Operating balances around the
country are used to provide program improvement. It may be
improving the equipment that the food is prepared in and with.
It may be improving the decor in the cafeteria so that it is an
inviting place for students to consume healthy meals.
Since that time through February of this year, my operating
fund balance has decreased by 1.2 months. What that means is I
have got 1.8 months operating balance so the--and it is mainly
due to the increased cost of meeting the standards. And a lot
of the food that the students don't like goes in the trash, and
that is precious--
Mr. Courtney. Just I want to give Mrs. McAuliffe a chance--
Ms. Bauscher. Okay.
Mr. Courtney.--to jump in. But I just want to tell you. If
there is a gap in terms of, you know, the rules versus your
operating, we want that information because, frankly, there are
other ways to solve that problem rather than weakening
standards.
Mrs. McAuliffe?
Mrs. McAuliffe. Well, I agree, and I understand that the
difficulties of the challenges of working with pennies,
literally pennies, nickels and dimes a day, to feed our
children and feed them well. I think that the Retreat Is Not An
Option analogy is absolutely spot on. We know the right thing
to do as parents, we know what we have to teach as teachers,
and we don't give up. We don't retreat. We figure out, we add
creativity, we add extra work and urgency to our mission.
I would say that it is tough but it is being done and there
are success stories out there and I think what we are finding
in Virginia, too, is the peer-to-peer colleagues, working
school nutrition directors together, sharing best practices,
looking at what works within their agricultural community and
how are we, you know, warehousing that local hamburger meat so
we can spend a little bit more on the local hamburger meat but,
you know, not have to sacrifice, you know, all of our budget
for it. I think that it all takes a lot more--it is more
demanding on all of us but we can't retreat.
Chairman Kline. Gentleman's time is expired.
Mr. Grothman?
Mr. Grothman. Thank you all for being here today. Very
illuminating and I can see you all have a lot of enthusiasm for
the topic.
I am going talk a little bit to Ms. Bauscher first. You
talked about that the problems we have of kids throwing away
their food, and I have had people lobbying me in my office on
that topic and I hear anecdotal evidence of that from kids in
my district. You mentioned that you were having more success
and your children liked the kiwis but they were expensive. You
brought that anecdote up for a reason. Do you feel if you had
more money, maybe put a few more of those in the fruit cups or
whatever, we could have more kids eat the food?
Ms. Bauscher. Again, kids like what they like and kiwi is
one of the things that they really like and, yes, more money
would help me provide that and potentially help them consume
that since it includes something that they like.
So I think that we need to stay focused on teaching kids
the importance of consuming healthy foods. We need to continue
to make them available in the cafeteria but, again, if I lose
or my program reserves continue to decline and program operates
in the red, I have to hold out my hand to my administration and
ask them to cover my deficit, and that is occurring in more and
more districts around the country.
So we all recognize the critical importance of these
programs in assuring that kids are prepared to learn and in
moving the needle on student achievement. We want to make sure
that all of our students are prepared for success throughout
their lives. So these programs are critical and, you know, when
the program goes in the red, a school potentially goes off of
the program, we are not able to provide the support they need.
Mr. Grothman. Certain foods. Because some of your
statistics across the board kind of surprised me. I mean, for a
minute, I felt I was like in the Bangladesh house of
representatives rather than the United States House of
Representatives, hearing we have such a crisis of hunger
apparently in our schools.
One of you mentioned that we have a hunger problem, kids
zero to 5, and if there was a problem there, I would assume we
would see it reflected in the measurements of our 5-year olds
when they enter school. I assume we keep track of those things
over time, you know, average weight and height of a 5-year old
in the 2010, 2000, 1960, 1950, what have you. Do you see any
changes over time in the size and the weight and height of our
5-year olds?
Ms. Bauscher. We do not collect that information in our
program. It is possible, but the other departments within the
district might collect that information. I think that we would
be happy to get back to you.
Mr. Grothman. Why don't I talk to Mr. Storen because he is
the director of research advocacy on this stuff. I mean, some
of us kind of wonder. Like I said, you guys have a little bit
of a problem because we talk about this obesity epidemic and
then we say we have this problem with all these people are
hungry and just on first blush, they kind of are contradictory.
So I am going to ask on something that is hard. Over a
period of time, when we measure our 5-year olds in this
country, do we see a change in height or a change in weight
before the system is able to get ahold of them?
Mr. Storen. Yes, I don't have those data available. I would
be happy to try to get back to try to get back to you. What I
do know is that the program WIC which is designed to help those
children ages zero to 5, there is a strong body of evidence
about the positive health impacts when kids do participate in
it. And I know about half of all babies in the United States do
participate in that program, so.
Mr. Grothman. But we don't collect data on that, okay.
Mrs. McAuliffe. May I comment on that--could I--
Mr. Grothman. Go ahead. No, sure.
Mrs. McAuliffe. The point about obesity I think is a really
big part of the conversation. Obesity, I view it as hunger in
many ways because it is hunger for the right type of food. It
is malnutrition. In Virginia, we have 17 percent of our
families living in food deserts. And so that is why if school
meals are consistently often the best and most consistent meal
for children, I think it is imperative on us to make sure that
we are doing the best that we can in terms of food quality, as
well as access.
Mr. Grothman. I will give you another thing to think about
and any of you can respond to this. A while back I read
something dealing with some of these food programs and that we
are kind of--it used to be it was important for kids to sit
around the dinner table at night and I think it is kind of an
important thing to sit around the breakfast table in the
morning. And, as time goes on, it becomes more--where we are
sending a message to parents that is more of the government's
concern and not their concern.
Does that concern you at all insofar as, you know, we are
kind of taking away a role that has maybe been the most basic
role the parents probably throughout all of history in kind of
saying that, you know, providing breakfast for your kids,
providing dinner for your kids or during summer periods, that,
you know, we are beginning to change the nature of life in that
we begin to make it more of a government thing than a family
thing. Does that--
Chairman Kline. I am sorry; the gentleman's time has
expired.
Mr. DeSaulnier, I think you are up.
Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, and the
ranking member for bringing this up.
I want my comments in the context of somebody who has spent
35 years in the food service industry and is sympathetic to the
comments by Ms. Bauscher. I know running restaurants, you
couldn't make customers eat food that they didn't want to and
pay for it, so. And having been a single parent, I understand
the challenges in getting kids to eat what is good for them.
But we have to separate food from nutrition and we started to
just hit on this, so.
I want to talk about the overall context. So I was an
author of one of the first local government menu labeling
bills, in spite of the fact of being in the restaurant business
in California. I was the co-author of the first state's menu
labeling bill in the United States in California with a L.A.
colleague. That has been in effect for about 8 years now, and
we did that in response to the Center for Disease Control
declaring a national epidemic when it came to obesity in
America.
America has the second highest obesity rate in the world.
We spend almost $200 billion a year on public health
consequences for obesity, and where it has most impacted is
amongst young people. So the way to do it is collectively and
then most of it is around education. So menu labeling was
letting parents know you are busy, you have to go through the
drive in at Taco Bell but you can see the menu is changing now
in fast food restaurants. You can see McDonald's now actually
promoting to their investors that they are changing.
So, in that context, I always thought that this was the
best investment the federal government could do, and along with
education. Not telling parents or kids they have to eat it
because they won't unless they know it is good for them. And
then we know from a nutritional standpoint that your palate
changes and adjusts.
And in terms of spoilage in California, what we found is
that we have actually reduced spoilage when we use fresh
ingredients. So in California, I know we are weird and we are
different, but 66 percent of Republicans and 87 percent of
Democrats in a recent Pew Charitable Trust poll said that they
supported the current standards.
So in the context of my colleague from Virginia talking
about cost, I view this as an investment. We change the cost
curve when we invest in letting kids know that they can grow
healthy foods in their school gardens, they can go in the
kitchen afterschool programs and Dr. Krey and Mrs. McAuliffe's
overall question is in regards to larger context, directed at
Mrs. McAuliffe and if Dr. Krey wants to jump in there.
And then the secondary thing is intercession, summer school
loss, both cognitively and nutritionally, and what a difference
it makes for poor kids. So those are the two sort of general
questions in terms of cost avoidance in investment in a broad
scale, not just in this program, and to agree with education.
That the best way to gets kids and parents to invest in good
nutrition is to educate them to the cost in the long term, both
cognitively and nutritionally.
Ms. McAuliffe?
Mrs. McAuliffe. Sorry, I lost track of--I am sorry about
the question; I heard every single thing you said--
Mr. DeSaulnier. So the overall question is, in the context,
in California, we did it across the board. We wanted to educate
parents, we wanted to educate adults about the obesity--the
consequences of that, and I wonder if you are doing that in
Virginia.
Mrs. McAuliffe. I think that, you know, schools, local
programs are doing things differently in their own way. But,
yes, I think that part--when you are talking about nutrition
curriculum, you are talking about educating the next generation
but there is always a piece about taking these conversations
home, talking to parents. And I think that parents--many
schools are inviting parents in as part of the, you know--we
have heard of nights where everybody eats in the cafeteria at
night to introduce some of the new foods as they go along with
the guidelines.
So I think that is absolutely, you know--schools are
definitely a partnership, students, parents and teachers. And
that partnership has to remain strong always and it is
definitely an imperative part of this conversation.
Mr. DeSaulnier. So, Dr. Krey, just to follow up on the
intercession of summer school loss, you said it is not just for
students' health but for the learning loss, up to half of that
learning loss happens during the summer. Could you extrapolate
on that a little bit, just briefly?
Ms. Krey. Certainly, certainly. We know from studies that
there are social, emotional and behavioral problems associated
with being food insecurity and micronutrient deficiencies,
cognitive delays and so when we look at child nutrition
programs, that is one reason why summer is such a difficult
period because it is regular, sustained access to nutritious
meals that help prevent a lot of those deficiencies that I have
talked about, and enable students to stay on track and to
continue to be prepared to learn.
Mr. DeSaulnier. I want to yield back the remainder of the
time I have.
Chairman Kline. You also are my hero.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Allen?
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I am having one of
those days where I have got two of these going on at the same
time. In fact, we were talking about nutrition over at Ag, and
the food bank process and how that is working coordinating with
the SNAP program.
But I represent Georgia's 12th district where roughly 31
percent of children have limited or uncertain access to
adequate nutritious food. These kids come from great families
but, because of economic times, you know, they struggle to make
ends meet living paycheck to paycheck.
We all know how important child nutrition is and I thank
you for your work in that area. And, you know, our school food
programs ensure that kids have access to the foods.
Dr. Krey, you state in your testimony that 19.5 percent of
American households with children are food insecure. Can you
discuss what being food insecure means and how that impacts
children specifically?
Ms. Krey. Certainly. So food insecurity is a broad term so
it captures both outright hunger and the coping mechanisms that
households use to avoid it. So it refers to a lack of food
access based on resources. It is a household situation so it
affects everyone in a household but it can affect them
differently, and it is a year-long measure. So we know that
food insecurity can be episodic and cyclical, giving other
factors that put people at risk.
And we know from a lot of studies that food insecure
individuals have worse health and educational outcomes than
food secure households. It has been well documented, and we
know that households suffering from food insecurity are more
likely to have children, which is what makes it a larger
concern. And we know that when children live in food insecure
households, they are more likely to have disrupted eating
patterns and diets and we know the link that we have talked
about between good nutrition and children's health development
and learning.
Mr. Allen. Good. Thank you.
I recently saw a poll that indicated about 93 percent of
parents in Georgia think school food service should serve a
fruit and vegetable on every meal. For example, in Burke County
in my district, they are having a lot of success with the Farm-
to-School program serving locally-grown collard greens, one of
my personal favorites, along with sweet potatoes, cabbage,
broccoli and other favorites, strawberries, whole grain grits
and, because we are a big blueberry area now, and with, you
know, mixing that with whole wheat flour and local products. Do
you think programs like Farm-to-School or Smarter Lunchrooms
have been helpful, and how can we grow that program?
Ms. Bauscher. Donna Martin, who is the director in your
area--
Mr. Allen. Yes.
Ms. Bauscher.--is a wonderful success story and we tap her
all the time to share her successes and her recipes with
members to inspire them.
I think Farm-to-School programs are very important. Many,
many school food authorities have Farm-to-School programs or
school garden programs. To Mrs. McAuliffe's point earlier, it
is important that kids learn where food comes from. And when
kids are actively involved in growing and harvesting food, they
are more likely to consume it and generally consume more.
One of the programs we haven't touched on today at all is
the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, available in schools
with high at-risk students. I have got 30 of my schools that
participate in that program. It includes a nutrition education
component and we work through that program to teach children
where their food comes from, why it is healthy for them, and,
anecdotally, I know that in schools that participate in that
program, they choose and consume more fruits and vegetables
with their meal.
The unfortunate part is that program is not available to
all school food authorities. So it is a wonderful program that
not only provides nutrition education but, again, encourages
kids to consume healthier fruits and vegetables.
Mr. Allen. How can we make that more available? Is there
just the rural versus urban--
Ms. Bauscher. Well, it currently is only available in areas
where at least 50 percent of the--
Mr.Allen. Right.
Ms. Bauscher.--students qualify for free or reduced meals.
Mr. Allen. I got you.
Ms. Bauscher. So making programs like that more accessible,
you--because even a lot of our paid-students need to learn
where their food comes from, so making it more widely available
would support the current requirement.
Mr. Allen. Good. Yes, Donna did share a lot of this
information with me and I am very appreciative of her efforts,
as well.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the remainder of my time.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, gentleman. Another hero.
Mr. Polis?
Mr. Polis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Last week in Colorado I got to visit the school nutrition
services at Poudre School District in my district, which serves
schools in Fort Collins area. And at Poudre School District
they serve healthy, often locally-grown fruits and vegetables
to students as part of their Farm-o-School initiative. The
leaders of this school nutrition service at PSD are thrilled
with upgrading the federal regs. In fact, due, in fact, part to
whole grains, they have been able to attract 10 percent more
families back to opt in to the district lunch program.
As an example of what they are serving then, they put their
menu and recipes up at PSDSchools.nutraslice.com,
[email protected] Today, they are serving a General
Tso chicken and steamed broccoli. Yesterday was lasagna with
veggies, rotini with roasted spring veggies, and chicken, and
steamed vegetables.
They have really found that offering healthy and nutritious
food in excess of the federal nutrition standards actually
helps pull families back into participating, which improves the
economic viability of their paid lunch program and, of course,
as well through scale, their free and reduced lunch program.
They are very excited about bringing healthier foods to
students and helping instill positive eating habits in schools.
Another school district in Boulder Valley School District
in my district in Colorado, working with Chef Ann Cooper and
the Ann Cooper Foundation, has implemented a large-scale food
change. As Chef Ann Cooper says, who is the head of nutrition
food services for Boulder Valley School District, she says, ``I
envision a time soon when being a chef working to feed children
fresh, delicious and nourishing food will no longer be
considered renegade.''
Mrs. McAuliffe, I was wondering if you could talk more
about initiatives like those in Poudre School District and
Boulder Valley School District and others that can be
replicated and encouraged through a reauthorization of the
child nutrition act?
Mrs. McAuliffe. Thank you, I appreciate that. The
connection between where our food comes from, what we are
putting in our bodies, it matters. There is a growing demand
for that in this country, both in our schools but in our
community at large it is important. We see those demands
growing.
Andrea--I have to give a shout out to one of our lead
school nutrition directors, Andrea Early in Harrisonburg City
Schools, who is a national leader on Farm-to-School, and what
she has done is brought in the ag extension program, the
agricultural community, and brought in Farmer Joe to talk about
lettuce when we introduce the school with the salad bar at
school.
So this community garden piece, the Farm-to-School piece,
it is so critical to connecting in a real live way, a tangible
way to get kids excited about how does Farmer Joe grow his
lettuce. And Farmer Joe is really fun to listen to, and I think
I will try his lettuce because it is on a salad bar today.
So that connection between where your food comes from and
making it very real is really critical to success of these
programs.
Mr. Polis. And, again, one of the things that our school
districts have found that is contrary to some of the testimony
from the others is, by increasing nutrition standards, they
actually got more families to participate in the lunch program.
I would also like to highlight a non-profit in my district
called the Kitchen Community that has an approach to school
gardens where kids actually grow their own food and it can
provide 1 or 2 or 3 days' worth of nutrition. Both Boulder
Valley School District and Poudre School District have
implemented salad bars in every school, as well as vegetarian
options.
These are the kinds of things that, if more districts did,
and I wanted to address this to Ms. Bauscher, why aren't more
districts doing this kind of thing on their own? Why are we
even forced to talk about it here? Obviously, we are a big
funder of this. Why aren't districts like ours getting more
families to participate by launching salad bars, by making sure
they have vegetarian options as more and more kids want them?
Ms. Bauscher. First, let me say that a lot of districts are
offering salad bars and more vegetarian options, but school
food authorities are as diverse as your Congressional
districts; not all school food authorities have the resources
to do that. Salad bars, for example--
Mr. Polis. Well, reclaiming my time, but our districts have
found is that they have more resources when they offer these
things--
Ms. Bauscher. And--
Mr. Polis.--because families that have not participated in
the school lunch program because the kids are vegetarian or the
family wants food from a salad bar, they are the ones that are
opting in, giving the school districts more resources along
with it. And I think that is what we can accomplish nationally
to improve the viability and the efficiency of school lunch
programs across the country.
And I think that is what we can do by raising the federal
bar, and I hope that we renew our commitment to healthy and
nutritious school lunches across the country, which I think is
consistent with the fiscal viability that you indicated in your
testimony.
And I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman Kline. I thank the gentleman for yielding back his
time, however how much of it had expired.
I now recognize the ranking member for any closing remarks
that he may have.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I think this has been a great hearing. We have heard about
the importance of nutritious meals. It is a national security
interest because 25 percent of our young people are obese and
can't even enlist in the military. It has other long-term
health effects. We have heard about the correlation between
academic achievement, including behavior, and attendance with
good nutrition.
And so our reauthorization has to make sure we continue the
programs and also recognize that nutritious meals actually cost
more. Federal standards are important. It has been pointed out
that 93 percent of our schools are in compliance so they can't
be that unreasonable.
We have heard a lot about unnecessary paperwork that needs
to be addressed, and the summer availability. We have seen a
lot of studies that showed that a significant portion of the
achievement gap is due to regression during the summer.
So I look forward to the authorization and, in the
meanwhile, Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to enter into
the record the Harvard study from last year showing that more
students eating fruits and vegetables. Another one from the
University of Connecticut this year showing that students are
eating more fruit and no increase in plate waste. And one from
last year, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study on students
accepting and liking the school food under the new standards,
and no increase in plate waste. And a letter from the Academy
of Nutrition and Dietetics on the importance of the school
programs. And one from the National WIC Association with the
significant recommendations on how we can improve nutrition.
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Chairman Kline. Without objection, we will include them
all.
Mr. Scott. Thank you.
Chairman Kline. Gentleman yields back.
I want to add my thanks to all of you, a great panel. It
really has been very informative. We are dealing with I think
sometimes a very confusing subject.
Mr. Grothman brought this notion up in his questions when
he talked about, wait a minute, we talking about obesity here
or we talking about hunger, we talking about malnutrition, we
talking about wealthy schools, poor schools. We are talking
about all of these things and it hard to get the policy right.
This is a first and important step.
One of my colleagues said, well, it is okay for some
wealthy schools to drop out because this isn't about wealthy
schools. Wealthy schools have poor kids, as well. And this
isn't just about poor kids and wealthy kids; this is about all
of our kids.
So we have got a pretty big job. I very much appreciate the
input that all of you had. I have been sitting here
contemplating what a whole grain tortilla would actually taste
like and I am guessing not that good. So we have got our work
cut out for us; we are eager to do it. We very much appreciate
your help here today.
There being no further business, committee stands
adjourned.
[Additional submission by Ms. Krey follows:]
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[Additional submission by Mr. Scott follows:]
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[Additional submission by Ms. Wilson follows:]
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[Questions submitted for the record and their responses
follow:]
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[Dr. Krey response to questions submitted for the record
follow:]
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[Mrs. McAuliffe response to questions submitted follows:]
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[Mr. Storen response to questions submitted follows:]
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[Ms. Bauscher response to questions submitted follows:]
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[Whereupon, at 12:05 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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