[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 106 (Monday, June 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Ms. Smith):
  S. 1949. A bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 
Act to require the Secretary of Agriculture to make loan guarantees and 
grants to finance certain improvements to school lunch facilities, to 
train school food service personnel, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from 
Minnesota, Senator Smith, in introducing the School Food Modernization 
Act to assist schools in updating outdated kitchen equipment, allowing 
them to provide healthier meals to students.
  School meals play a vital role in the lives of our young people. More 
than 95,000 schools participate in the National School Lunch program, 
serving upwards of 30 million children each day. Many children consume 
up to half their daily caloric intake at school, and some get their 
most nutritious meal of the day at school instead of at home. Because 
school meals are a significant source of daily nutrition for so many, 
we must consistently aim to improve the program to best serve students.
  Schools built decades ago often lack the equipment and infrastructure 
necessary to do more than reheat and serve one or two meal options each 
day. In 2014, it was estimated that Maine schools alone would need 
$58.8 million for equipment infrastructure upgrades needed to serve 
healthy meals to all of our students. I am pleased that the Agriculture 
Appropriations Subcommittee has consistently recognized this need, and 
in Fiscal Year 2019 appropriated $30 million for School Equipment 
Assistance Grants. Through this funding, Maine will be able to 
competitively award $85,470 to school districts in need of updated 
equipment.
  Nutrition directors at Mount View High School in Thorndike, Maine, 
used USDA Equipment Assistance funding to purchase a blast chiller to 
accommodate increased quantities of fruits and vegetables. Thanks to 
this equipment, the school is now able to quickly and safely preserve 
the food's freshness while reducing spoilage. Other schools have 
acquired hot holding cabinets, mobile food carts, and even combination 
ovens, which prepare foods faster and maintain more vitamin and 
nutrient content compared with many other cooking methods. Our 
legislation would codify and improve this successful grant program to 
better meet the growing need nationwide.
  The School Food Modernization Act seeks to help school food service 
personnel offer a wide variety of nutritious and appealing meals to all 
students. First, the bill would provide targeted grant assistance to 
supply the seed funding needed to upgrade kitchen infrastructure or to 
purchase high-quality equipment. Second, it would establish a loan 
guarantee assistance program within USDA to help schools acquire new 
equipment. Finally, to aid school food services personnel in running 
successful, healthy programs, the legislation would authorize USDA to 
provide support on a competitive basis to highly qualified third-party 
trainers to develop and administer training and technical assistance, 
including online programs.
  I appreciate that some provisions of this legislation were 
incorporated into previous versions of the Children Nutrition 
Reauthorization legislation approved by the Senate Agriculture 
Committee. I encourage our colleagues to continue to support school 
kitchen equipment needs as the reauthorization process continues.
  Mr. President, if our school children are going to be able to learn 
and succeed, they need their minds and bodies to be fully nourished. 
This bill would help us achieve that goal.

                          ____________________