[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 102 (Wednesday, June 15, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5593-H5598]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HELP FEED OUR KIDS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Omar) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
General Leave
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include any extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Minnesota?
There was no objection.
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, we are on the brink of a hunger crisis, both
here in the United States and around the globe. Right now, more than 38
million people, including 12 million children, are food insecure in the
United States.
Food prices are expected to rise up to 7.5 percent this year,
stretching already tight family budgets.
In my home State of Minnesota, dozens of hunger relief organizations
are warning of the hungriest summer on record if the State doesn't
convene a special session to combat hunger.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I passed the MEALS Act to let
districts provide universal meals in the hope of preventing a massive
hunger crisis. It worked. Over 30 million kids are now estimated to
receive school meals.
In August 2020, when the waivers were on the verge of expiring,
Representative Pingree and I joined 119 of our colleagues in sending a
letter to the Secretary of Agriculture urging him to extend the school
meal waivers.
Throughout the pandemic, I sent three letters and worked tirelessly
to ensure every child can eat. Though we were able to secure these
critical waiver extensions, the uncertainty cost millions of families
and school administrators to panic and stress.
Now, we find ourselves in a familiar place where at the end of this
month--in just 15 days--millions of children are again at risk of going
hungry as the school meal waivers are set to expire.
Let me be clear: We cannot let these lifesaving waivers lapse as the
pandemic rages on. I am working with the Education and Labor Committee
and leadership to ensure that our children are continuing to be fed.
But we can't stop there. We need permanent solutions. As a former
community nutrition educator, childhood hunger is an issue I know all
too well. That is why one of the first bills I introduced after I was
sworn in was the Universal School Meals Program Act with Senators
Sanders and Gillibrand.
My bill would provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to every
student and eliminate school meal debt. No child in the wealthiest
country in the world should experience food insecurity. We here in the
United States must lead to end child hunger here at home and we must
continue to lead to stop this global hunger crisis.
Every night up to 811 million people around the globe go to bed
hungry. Of the 811 million, 276 million people are facing acute food
insecurity and about 50 million people are facing what the U.N. World
Food Programme describes as ``emergency levels of hunger.''
While the United States has provided $2.6 billion to help other
countries with
[[Page H5594]]
food shortages, we need other countries to step up and do their part.
With 49 million people around the world on the verge of famine, we need
to rally all leaders to increase the supply of food and fertilizers;
support basic safety nets for those without food; and fund humanitarian
operations to reduce famine and hunger.
We have to remember what got us to this point: Putin's illegal
invasion of Ukraine has disrupted exports from two of the world's
biggest wheat producers making wheat unaffordable and unattainable for
millions.
Right now, India, Argentina, Australia, and Canada collectively have
the power to make up for most of the wheat lost due to the war or the
restrictions that are being created by some other countries. That is
why we need countries around the world to step up and do their part to
combat the wheat shortage, which is especially being felt in the Horn
of Africa.
The U.N. has warned about the imminent ``explosion of child deaths''
due to food insecurity and malnutrition in the Horn of Africa. In
Somalia, 29 percent of children are experiencing acute malnutrition.
About 7 million livestock in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia have died
since last fall due to widespread drought.
This food crisis in the Horn of Africa and all parts of the globe
will only get worse unless we take steps to stop this catastrophe from
taking hold.
We have to act to address the nexus of inflation, war, and climate
change. Now is the time to act.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms.
Stansbury).
Ms. STANSBURY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge this body to pass
urgent legislation to help feed our children.
If we do not act, millions of children across the United States and
across New Mexico will lose access to vital school meals--breakfast and
lunches that are helping to address an epidemic of food insecurity that
is impacting every single corner of our State and our country.
Food insecurity has many faces. Like so many children from New
Mexico, I was a school lunch kid. I qualified for 100 percent free and
reduced-price lunch throughout my entire childhood. In fact, one in
four children in New Mexico are facing food insecurity and hunger, and
for many of these kids, school meals are the only reliable meal of the
day.
In New Mexico food is the center of our cultures, of our families, of
our ways of life, and yet, so many of our families are struggling every
single day to put food on the table.
For every family food insecurity looks different. It may mean
skipping meals, not being able to buy groceries every week, relying on
school lunches in order to feed children, and getting help from a local
food pantry and a local food bank.
In many cases, we know the pandemic has caused our families to
struggle even more, made the situation worse, intensified food and
hunger insecurity across our Nation, and that is why the work of this
body here in Congress to expand funding for nutrition programs to
extend these waivers and include school meals for every child in
America is quite literally a lifeline for our families and for our
children.
If Congress, and especially the Senate, do not act, millions of
children across America will actually lose access to school meals that
have carried them through the pandemic. This comes as our Nation is
grappling with disruptions to supply chains, inflation, rising costs,
and putting stresses on families across our country.
In exactly one month--days from now--our country will be facing a
hunger cliff as Federal waivers for school meals are set to expire and
children will lose access to 95 million meals across the country this
summer.
I have worked on food and hunger issues across my entire public
policy career. In New Mexico, we are working every day to reimagine our
food systems, to lift up our State's diverse and crucial food and
agriculture traditions and support our families who are struggling.
As a State legislator, I was deeply proud to partner with our
Governor and my colleagues in the State house and hunger advocates and
agricultural entities across the State to address food insecurity and
to pass a bill to end school meal copays.
Here in Congress, I am proud to continue this work alongside
antihunger champions like yourself, Madam Speaker, and as part of the
Hunger Caucus led by Chairman McGovern.
I am also proud to cosponsor H.R. 3115, the Universal School Meals
Program Act, which would address this crisis permanently by providing
three locally sourced meals a day to every school child in America.
The time to act is now. Our kids are counting on us. During the
pandemic, Congress made a game-changing decision--to feed all children
without barriers, without bureaucratic obstacles.
This is about the dignity and well-being of our families and meeting
the most basic needs of our children.
We have the opportunity to chart a new path forward for our country.
Will we decide to be a nation that lets our kids go hungry or will we
decide to be a nation where no child should ever have to experience
food insecurity again?
This is the choice facing this body, and this, Madam Speaker, is why
we must extend school meals.
{time} 1630
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North
Carolina (Ms. Adams).
Ms. ADAMS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and
her great work.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the hunger crisis in our
communities and in our schools.
Millions of children will go hungry on June 30, just 2 weeks from
now, if we fail to act. Let me say that again for anyone who may not
have heard me. Millions of children will go hungry on June 30 if we do
not act.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record an article from the Charlotte
Observer outlining how the children in my district will be affected.
No More Free Lunch for Some CMS Students Starting Next Year
(By Anna Maria Della Costa)
A program that has provided free meals to K-12 students in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will stop at the end of this
school year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's universally free
school meals arose out of pandemic-era waivers that allowed
all K-12 students to get school breakfast and lunch at no
cost regardless of their family's income beginning in March
2020. Those waivers are set to expire June 30, despite school
nutrition advocates urging Congress for an extension in the
federal 2022 spending bill.
School meal programs will return to pre-pandemic procedures
for the 2022-23 school year, which means free breakfast
continues and lunch may not.
``I just want to remind everybody. it's the U.S. Department
of Agriculture that this falls under, this is not the CMS
Board of Education trying to give everybody a tough time on
free and reduced lunch,'' Interim Superintendent Hugh
Hattabaugh said during the board's meeting Tuesday. ``We were
hopeful that maybe the bill that was set forward would be
approved, but it was not extended out.''
IN CMS, BREAKFAST WILL STILL BE FREE FOR ALL STUDENTS
Cassie Fambro, a media relations specialist with CMS, told
the Observer that breakfast will continue to be provided in
all of the district's schools at no charge for the 2022-23
school year. For each of CMS' summer camps and programs, free
breakfast and lunch also will be provided.
CMS will not raise lunch meal prices for 2022-23, keeping
them at pre-pandemic rates for students. For pre-K students,
the lunch meal price is $2.50; K-8 students pay $2.75 and 9-
12 students pay $3. The reduced price lunch meal is 40 cents.
PARENTS: FILL OUT THE PAPERWORK
Students attending some CMS schools will have to qualify
for free or reduced-price lunch through direct certification,
which could include families receiving food stamps, students
who are homeless or foster children. Students can also
receive free meals from an approved free or reduced-price
meal benefit application.
Students not approved for free lunch will need to have cash
or money on account to pay for lunch. Fambro said.
Applications will be available online or on paper beginning
August 1.
``We're not going to let any child walk away without a
meal.'' Hattabaugh said. ``We need help from parents and the
community to assist everybody.''
Board member Margaret Marshall said it's concerning that
the waiver is not going to be extended.
``We're going to have a lot of families who if they don't
qualify and fill out paperwork are going to have some
problems with food this year,'' Marshall said. ``Make sure
families fill out the paperwork so we can have
[[Page H5595]]
the funds to feed those students and they won't rack up meal
debt which has to come due at some point. This is really
important.''
68 CMS SCHOOLS NOT AFFECTED
CMS has 68 schools that fall into the Community Eligibility
Provision, an option for schools and districts in low-income
areas. The program allows schools to serve meals at no charge
to all enrolled students, and families do not have to fill
out an application.
Hattabaugh said these schools will not be affected by the
change in meal service.
``They will still have what they had during the pandemic.''
he said.
The following CMS schools are in the Community Eligibility
Provision:
Albemarle Road Elementary, Albemarle Road Middle,
Allenbrook Elementary, Ashley Park (K-8), Charles Parker
Academic Center, Berryhill School, Briarwood Elementary,
Bruns Avenue Elementary, Walter G. Byers School, Charlotte
East Language Academy, Cochrane Collegiate Academy, Coulwood
STEM Academy, David Cox Road Elementary, Devonshire
Elementary, Druid Hills Academy, Eastway Middle, First Ward
Creative Arts Academy, Garinger High, Greenway Park
Elementary, Joseph W. Grier Academy, J.H. Gunn Elementary,
Harding University High, Hickory Grove Elementary, Hidden
Valley Elementary, Highland Renaissance Academy, Hornets Nest
Elementary.
Idlewild Elementary, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle,
Lawrence Orr Elementary, Lebanon Road Elementary, Charlotte
Mecklenburg Academy, Marie G. Davis (K-8), James Martin
Middle, McClintock Middle, Merry Oaks International Academy,
Montclaire Elementary, Nations Ford Elementary, Newell
Elementary, Oakdale Elementary, Oakhurst STEAM Elementary,
Paw Creek Elementary, Pinewood Elementary, Piney Grove
Elementary, Rama Road Elementary.
Ranson Middle, Reid Park Academy, Renaissance West STEAM
Academy, Sedgefield Middle, Shamrock Gardens Elementary,
Statesville Road Elementary, Sterling Elementary, Stoney
Creek Elementary, Thomasboro Academy, Tuckaseegee Elementary,
Turning Point Academy, University Meadows Elementary,
University Park Creative Arts Elementary, Julius L. Chambers
High, Villa Heights Elementary, West Charlotte High, West
Mecklenburg High, Westerly Hills Academy, Whitewater Academy,
Whitewater Middle, Wilson STEM Academy, Winding Springs
Elementary, Windsor Park Elementary, Winterfield Elementary.
Ms. ADAMS. Madam Speaker, at the beginning of the pandemic, this body
authorized waivers to help make it easier for schools to offer meals to
kids, and we gave access to healthy, nutritious foods to 10 million
more school-age children because finding reliable food sources became a
problem.
In case my Republican friends need a reminder, President Trump signed
that legislation into law. Even as the pandemic continues and food
prices are on the rise, these waivers are set to expire at the end of
the month.
As a 40-year educator, I know that hunger has been a crisis in our
schools and our communities since long before the pandemic. That is
also why when I came to Congress, I founded the Adams Hunger Initiative
to help coordinate the response to the hunger crisis in my community,
and why hunger has been one of my top priority issues in Congress.
In my home State of North Carolina, food insecurity has been a tragic
fact of life for our kids and our students. In fact, I just heard from
members of the North Carolina PTA today about their ever-present
concerns about food insecurity and how it will impact our students.
In 2018, 441,000 North Carolina children participated in SNAP, and
207,351 residents participated in the Women, Infants, and Children
program, or WIC. In 2019, 92,010 students participated in the summer
food service program. Almost 100,000 students needed help from their
school, so they didn't go hungry--again, that was before the pandemic.
In Charlotte, the hunger crisis led at least 24 elementary, middle,
and high schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District to open
food pantries to serve students in need during summer breaks and the
vacation.
For example, at Windsor Park Elementary in east Charlotte, members of
the Windsor Park Neighborhood Association donated food to keep the
shelves stocked for scores of food-insecure and housing-insecure
children.
In west Charlotte, University Park Creative Arts School is restocked
on a regular basis by Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, and thanks
to local donors it has a refrigerator and a large freezer to offer
diverse options for students and families. The need is real, and it is
staring us in the face.
It is also important to note that these two schools, along with 66
other local schools that will fall into the Community Eligibility
Provision, will still be able to offer meals and food to students at
the same levels of service as the past 2 years.
However, approximately 114 of our district's schools are not eligible
for that provision, meaning that access to summer nutrition will become
a patchwork. When students return at the end of the summer, fewer
students will get the meals that they need.
Our choice is clear: we can choose to act, or we can let millions of
children go hungry. As always, I am standing with our students.
Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Omar and the Congressional
Progressive Caucus for hosting this important Special Order hour
tonight.
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts
(Mr. McGovern), who also chairs the Caucus on Hunger.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Minnesota,
Congresswoman Omar, for leading this Special Order hour, at such a
critical time for our Nation's children.
Congresswoman Omar has been a champion for expanding access to
universal school meals and ending childhood hunger, and indeed, all
hunger in this country and around the globe, and I recognize her for
her leadership.
Madam Speaker, my two sisters are schoolteachers in the Worcester
public school system in Massachusetts. They remind me all the time that
school meals are as important to a child's ability to learn as a
textbook or a laptop. They wonder all the time why Congress, State
governments, and the Federal Government don't get that.
They see children show up to school on Mondays hungry because they
haven't eaten all weekend. It takes a while to get them the nutrition
that they need so they can focus again. If you are hungry, you can't
focus. If you can't focus, you can't learn. If you can't learn, you
fall behind. It is that simple.
They also tell me that Fridays are a tough day because those same
children come to them and ask if there is any food that they can take
home, not just for them but for their families. I have heard
heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story of children who are food
insecure, who are hungry in this country.
If you ever meet a child or see a child who is hungry, it breaks your
heart. It, quite frankly, angers me because we live in the richest
country in the history of the world. Even before the pandemic, close to
40 million Americans didn't know where their next meal was going to
come from.
I tell people all the time that hunger is a political condition. It
is not a partisan condition. It shouldn't be a partisan condition. It
is a political condition. By that I mean we have the food, we have the
resources, we have the infrastructure, we have the knowledge of what we
need to do. We have everything but the political will.
As has been pointed out here today, we are about to reach a hunger
cliff at the end of June. Waivers are going to run out. Money is going
to run out. If we don't do something, millions and millions of children
will lose their school meals and will lose their summer meals as well.
During the pandemic, thankfully, schools received flexibility and
funding to make sure their students got a healthy breakfast and lunch
at school. This has been a lifeline for families and school districts
facing rising costs and supply chain shortages.
We are coming to an end. All those safety measures that were put in
place during the pandemic will expire. I think what we are coming to
appreciate is that those safety measures should have been in place even
if there wasn't a pandemic. We can't go back to the days when close to
13 million kids went to bed hungry every night in the country.
With the group of leaders who are here on the floor, members of the
Progressive Caucus, as well as working with Speaker Pelosi, Chairman
Bobby Scott, Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, and working with Chairwoman
Stabenow over in the Senate, we have been trying to figure out ways to
extend the flexibility and funding needed to get healthy food to
America's students.
I believe that we will get there. The amazing leadership of Speaker
Pelosi will get us all together and we will find a way forward. We will
avoid this hunger cliff.
[[Page H5596]]
Madam Speaker, I am a liberal Democrat. I serve in this Congress,
both in the House and Senate, with many conservative Republicans, and I
understand that not everybody agrees on everything here. For example, I
want free universal school meals for every kid to be part of our
educational policy, and I want it there forever. I commend States like
California, Vermont, and Maine for taking a lead in their States. Their
legislatures have passed universal meals for their students. I want
Massachusetts to follow. I want every State to follow.
I get it. Not everybody shares my view. I also get that in order to
get anything to the President's desk we are going to have to navigate
through the Senate, which is always a challenge because in the Senate
you need 60 votes to have a cup of coffee, never mind pass a piece of
legislation.
We are going to have to figure out what it is we can get done in the
next couple of weeks. There are some who don't want as big a package as
others. There are some who are insisting on offsets. There are some who
are insisting on other things. We have to figure it out. We are going
to have figure it out because our kids are important. They are 100
percent of our future, and we ought to treat them as such.
Finally, one last point. America used to think big about solving
problems like hunger. In 1969, we held the first and only White House
Conference on Hunger. It was the same year we landed on the moon. That
conference led to a major expansion of the school lunch program and the
creation of the Women, Infants, and Children program, among other
things.
As a proud member of the Progressive Caucus, I have long thought that
it is time for America to think big once again to solve problems like
hunger. To think big the way we used to, not to manage problems, but to
solve them. We have the food to end child hunger in America.
Again, it is a matter of building the political will. I personally
believe that food ought to be a fundamental human right here in this
country and around the world. I say this because I am thrilled that
President Biden recently announced that he will host a White House
Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to bring together experts
from across the country, and all agencies within the Federal Government
to create a plan, not to manage hunger in America, to end hunger in
America.
It will be an opportunity for people with lived experiences to have
their voices heard because sometimes we make decisions here and we
don't talk to the people who are most affected by what we are trying to
do.
We have the opportunity to prevent child hunger and to make universal
free school meals a reality. This is our moment to make it happen. In
the lead-up to this conference, Members of Congress have the
opportunity to host listening sessions to hear directly from local
educators and families who benefit from free school meals.
I encourage my colleagues to host these sessions and to transmit
their findings to the White House so that the recommendations that come
out of this conference reflect the power of school meals to change
lives and improve nutrition among children.
Madam Speaker, I encourage not just progressive Members, I encourage
moderate Members, and conservative Members to do listening sessions in
their districts to hear about not only the extent of this problem,
which is a costly problem, but hear about potential solutions so we can
end hunger. If you are interested, you can reach out to my office, and
we can point you in the right direction.
Madam Speaker, I, again, thank Congresswoman Omar for bringing us
together at such a critical moment. There are some problems that we are
faced with that I don't know what the solution is, but hunger is not
one of them. This is a solvable problem that we can solve in a matter
of a few years if we put our minds to it and if we work together.
Let's do something big, something bold, something that will reflect
the goodness of the people of this country and make a real difference.
It may be an example for the rest of the world.
{time} 1645
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for his remarks.
The chairman is right that when we invest in our children, who are
assets to our future, it pays dividends. It is important that we
recognize that it shouldn't be a partisan issue to want to feed the
bellies of our children before we try to feed their brains. We know
from study after study that kids do better in school when they are fed.
When they have adequate nutrition, they show up to school much more
ready to learn, and their behavior in itself is much different.
Example after example, we found, as we looked into this, schoolwide
free meals improve math performance in districts where relatively few
students qualify under the income-based programs Brookings found. A
study found that students in schools with universal school meals fare
better on tests than their peers without these meals. That is according
to Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse
University.
The nutrition quality of school meals has improved. Students with
universal school meal programs are being offered more fruits,
vegetables, and whole grains. That means that they are getting the
nutrients that will help with their development. New York City, where
there have been universal school meals, a study found that regardless
of poverty status, the universal school meals program improved
students' perception of bullying, fighting, and safety at their
schools.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bowman).
Mr. BOWMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Omar for continuing
to be a champion on this issue, and I thank the Congresswoman for being
here this evening.
As it was said before, we are the wealthiest nation on Earth. We
should be able to feed every child and every person, period, point-
blank. We have the resources--financial, natural, and intellectual--to
help feed every child on the planet. The fact that we are choosing not
to do so is a policy choice. It is not a choice based on a lack of
resources.
As we focus on school lunches and children in our schools, we often
talk about education. The conversation that has been happening over the
last several decades is a conversation that focuses on something called
the achievement gap.
We often look at the achievement gap through the lens of race. We say
that Black and Latino students are outperformed by their White and
Asian counterparts. What we don't often talk about is the achievement
gap through the lens of economic distress and poverty.
What we know is children who suffer from poverty and live in poverty
do more poorly in school than their middle-class and upper-middle-class
counterparts. Poverty is obviously related to food insecurity and
hunger.
Poverty and everything that comes with it is a complex trauma. Hunger
is also a complex trauma. Children will not thrive in a school setting
if we continue to allow them to be hungry.
This is not just about their academic performance. This is about
their physical development. This is also about their social and
emotional development as well. It is also about their mental health
both in school and out of school.
This is not something that is only confined to what happens in our
schools. We have to look at, consider, and think about what happens in
their post-graduation environment. Children who are hungry and children
who suffer from the complex traumas that I mentioned before will have
lower or less positive health and economic outcomes over the course of
their lives.
It is our duty and responsibility as the United States Government,
with the power of the purse and the power of the intellectual and
natural resources, to make sure we have preschool lunches in our
schools and to make sure our children are fed.
I also want to mention a few other components that take place in
schools that we don't often talk about as it relates to school lunches,
poverty, and hunger. When we look at the school-to-prison pipeline,
when we look at school suspensions, and when we look at school
expulsions, when we look at these things, when we look at who is placed
in special education, these are children who come from challenging
[[Page H5597]]
circumstances rooted in poverty and also rooted in hunger and the
trauma in their communities and in their homes.
Again, it is our duty and responsibility to get this done. To use
language used by some of my more conservative colleagues, this is a
national security issue because if we are not feeding our children,
then we are not educating our children. If we are not educating our
children, then we do not have a healthy society and we do not have a
healthy democracy.
The well-being of our children is a pillar of our country going
forward, and in order for them to receive the nourishment and education
that they need, we must make sure they are fed and fed well and are not
food insecure.
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from
Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley).
Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Omar for bringing
us together this afternoon and for her steadfast leadership on the
issue of hunger and food insecurity, an issue that she has been leading
on since she was in the Minnesota State Legislature. We are grateful
for her shining a light consistently on this and the need for us to
address rising hunger and its impact on communities here and around the
globe.
Madam Speaker, across Massachusetts' Seventh District and across the
Nation, families are facing unprecedented levels of food insecurity. I
am reminded of the words of Coretta Scott King, who said: ``Starving a
child is violence. Neglecting schoolchildren is violence.''
We can, in fact, do something about this violence.
I am picking up on the words of Congressman McGovern, a global
champion in the fight against hunger and food insecurity, when he said
that we should stop managing problems and solve them. This is a
solvable problem.
A recent survey by the Greater Boston Food Bank found that nearly 2
million adults across the Commonwealth struggled to get enough to eat
last year. It was Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ people and their families
with children who were most likely to struggle.
No one should know hunger. No parent should know the heartache of
putting their baby to sleep with an empty belly.
Our communities were already in the midst of a hunger crisis, one
that we knew would be exacerbated by the pandemic. In response, my
congressional colleagues and I acted to provide critical resources and
flexibilities to support schools and communities in serving and meeting
the needs of families and children in need. Schools across the Nation
were able to keep school meal programs afloat while providing free
meals to an additional 10 million students each day.
Boston Public Schools, the largest school district in my district,
was able to serve over 330,000 students with free breakfasts and
lunches across all city neighborhoods.
For many families, these meals were the only reliable source of
nutrition throughout the day. They were a saving grace and a lifeline
for families across my district and across the Nation, Madam Speaker.
In less than 2 weeks, these school lunch flexibilities are set to
expire. We must act with urgency to avoid a hunger cliff that will fall
hardest on our most vulnerable children. We must act to avoid a
scenario where children will face a loss of 95 million meals over the
course of the summer alone.
States and districts have been sounding the alarm. It was these calls
from the community that prompted my colleagues, Representatives
McGovern, Lee, and me, to send an urgent letter to House and Senate
leaders, 1 month ago now, urging them to do everything in their power
to extend these essential lifelines. Senate Minority Leader McConnell
continues to block efforts to get this done. It is shameful yet
unsurprising.
In one of the richest nations in the world, it is an absolute
disgrace that millions of children struggle with food insecurity every
single day. The clock is running out, and we have a mandate and a duty
to get this done.
To my Republican colleagues, I urge them to join us in getting this
done. Children, families, and school district leaders across the Nation
simply cannot wait.
Once again, I thank my sister in service, Representative Omar, for
her steadfast leadership.
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Pressley for her
remarks.
Madam Speaker, I want for us to zoom out a little bit when we think
about the kind of poverty that exists in our country.
There are 37.2 million Americans who live in poverty. As I have
stated earlier, we have 38 million people, including 12 million
children, who are food insecure.
One in 25 households in the U.S. experience very low food security,
where families regularly skip meals because they can't afford more
food.
One in 15 U.S. seniors faces hunger. That is 5.2 million seniors who
are food insecure.
Madam Speaker, 2.1 million households living in rural communities
face hunger. Americans living in rural communities face hunger at
higher rates than those in urban areas, and BIPOC communities are
especially hard-hit by hunger. Rural communities make up to 63 percent
of the counties in the U.S. and 91 percent of counties with the highest
rates of overall food insecurity.
In 2019, SNAP and school meals lifted 3.2 million people out of
poverty.
If we just look at Minnesota alone, 432,000 people are facing hunger,
and of them, 147,000 are children. That is 1 in 13 people and 1 in 9
children who face hunger in Minnesota.
In April 2022, Minnesotans made 463,000 visits to their food shelves.
That is a 70 percent increase compared to April 2021.
Since January 2022, food shelf visits statewide have increased by 39
percent.
Madam Speaker, 2021 was the first year since 2014 that Minnesota
didn't see an annual increase in food shelf visits. The reason for
that, Madam Speaker, is because of the pandemic relief programs.
We heard from so many people from across Minnesota and across the
country, and I would just like to share some of their stories on how
some of these pandemic relief programs have helped them.
Eric from Willmar, Minnesota, recently shared how he struggles to
provide for himself and his siblings. Right before the pandemic, his
mother passed away, and he became the legal guardian of his younger
siblings. Concerned about providing enough food to eat, he was grateful
for the meals his siblings could get at school because of the MEALS
Act.
Amber, a mother from Duluth, Minnesota, shared how putting four kids
through school has been a financial struggle. Both she and her husband
work, making just above the threshold to qualify for the traditional
free lunches. When my bill was passed out of the House, the MEALS Act
allowed schools to provide school meals to all students, including
Amber's four children, and she called it ``godsent and a blessing.''
Yesterday, we got an email from a school food service director for a
group of 16 school districts in upstate central New York.
She wrote: ``It has been an incredibly difficult few years for school
food service with supply chain issues, rising costs of food, virtue,
hybrid schedules, different serving models, labor shortages . . . but
it has been a joy and privilege to see the direct impact of serving
breakfast and lunch for free to all students.
``Our program has grown from serving about 1,500 breakfasts and 5,600
lunches prepandemic to 3,500 breakfasts and 7,500 lunches per day this
school year. The stigma of free meals is gone since we are serving all
students on a truly even playing field.''
She went on to say: ``The end of the child nutrition waivers, most
significantly the one that allows free meals for all students, will be
a crushing blow to our program, our students, and our communities.''
{time} 1700
``Families have come to appreciate and rely on the free meals,'' she
says. ``We anticipate spending the next year having to have hard
conversations with upset parents who are struggling to pay their
account balances.
``The argument that students who really need it can apply for free
and reduced meals just doesn't cut it. There is a huge gap between the
income
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guidelines and truly being able to cover all of life's expenses,
including school meals.
``Our school nutrition program, students, and community thrived with
universal free meals. Without them, the future looks dim.''
That is why we are urgently asking Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to
not allow for these waivers to lapse. It is detrimental for us not to
act and do the right thing.
We also heard from a registered dietitian and the food service
director for a small rural school district. She wrote: ``Our enrollment
pre-K-12 is only 660 students, but well over half of them live in food-
insecure homes. Prior to the waivers, in February of 2020, only 20
percent of our youngest students in pre-K-6 ate breakfast with us.
``They would come in from the buses separate from their peers,
singled out as `free breakfast kids' while the others waited to start
their day. . . . The last 2\1/2\ years has seen a sea change for our
tiny school district.
``Due to free meals for all, we are able to transition our students
starting in September 2020 to a Breakfast in the Classroom Program.
Every day, they have a choice of the hot, nutritious meal of the day or
cereal, both options served with fruit and ice-cold milk.
``Students take menus home at the beginning of the month, decide on
which days they would like what meals. Teachers work collaboratively
with the food service department to preorder breakfast daily. . . . Our
breakfast participation has skyrocketed from 20 percent in February
2020 to 85 percent as of Friday of last week. Our numbers continue to
grow. And even better? Eating breakfast together as a school community
has become part of the woven fabric of our little district. . . . What
will September look like without these waivers?'' she asks.
``It will be heartbreaking. . . . With the inflation we have seen
reflected in grocery store prices, some of these students may well come
to school with empty bellies. We will lose the sense of community,
solidarity, and unity we have built over these past 2\1/2\ years. The
stigma of `needing help' will be stamped upon the kids who are lucky
enough to qualify while many others slip through the cracks, unlucky to
have adults in their households who make enough to disqualify them from
receiving benefits but poor enough to struggle as they balance $5 per
gallon gasoline, food, and increased rent.
``We are literally begging all of you in Congress to please help us
keep our kids fed. So many of them depend upon us. As we know, it is so
hard to learn on an empty stomach.''
I will end with where I started. This is a crisis. As I have always
said, as someone who has lived in a war-engulfed country, who has lived
in a refugee camp, who has experienced what severe hunger can look like
for a child who doesn't have access to food, it is baffling to me that
we see some of these stories coming out of communities here in the
United States, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
If we truly care about our children, and if we truly care about
building a future generation that is ready to lead in our country, we
have to care about getting them educated and ready. You cannot feed the
brains of children if their bellies are not fed. We must act, and we
must act now.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________