[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15262-15263]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 HEALTHY, HUNGER-FREE KIDS ACT OF 2010

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I rise to express strong support 
and to echo the comments of the previous speaker before Senator 
Landrieu, Senator Casey, for the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
  Chairwoman Lincoln has led the reauthorization efforts--chairing 
hearings of the Agriculture Committee, on which I sit, and speaking 
eloquently in this Chamber about what is at stake in the Healthy, 
Hunger-Free Kids Act.
  The health and well-being of our Nation's children, it goes without 
saying, has a direct effect on the health and well-being of our Nation. 
Our economic security depends on a strong and capable workforce. Our 
national security depends on a highly skilled and physically fit 
military. In fact, when President Truman signed the National School 
Lunch Act--laying the foundation for President Johnson to sign the 
Child Nutrition Act of 1966--he did so at the request of our military 
leaders, who saw firsthand the malnutrition plaguing so many of our 
soldiers--especially rural soldiers, White and Black alike--in World 
War II.
  When Congress passed the National School Lunch Act in 1946, it said:

       It is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress, as 
     a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and 
     well-being of the Nation's children.

  Today, our military leaders once again support the Child Nutrition 
Act and have joined with hunger and nutrition advocates to urge 
Congress to pass this critical legislation.
  So, too, are educators and business leaders and health care 
providers, who are worried about the costs of poor nutrition to our 
economy and our health care systems and the educational development of 
our children.
  As Senator Casey said so well, hungry children simply cannot learn. 
And my guess is, there are few, if any, in this Chamber who went to 
school so hungry as kids that they could not learn. But it certainly is 
proven, and we know that from observing kids, from talking to children, 
from watching their performance.
  Study after study indicates that access to healthy, nutritious foods 
is critical, obviously, to our children's health and their ability to 
learn. Yet the stories behind these studies put a real face on the 
issue of childhood hunger.
  Twenty percent of Ohio children under 18 years of age--570,000 
children--think of that, 1 out of 5 children in a State, in a generally 
wealthy State, in a very wealthy country; 20 percent, 1 out of 5 
children in my State under 18 years of age, more than 500,000 
children--live in food-insecure homes. Those numbers are comparable in 
the Presiding Officer's State, in cities such as Huntington and 
Charleston and Morgantown and Beckley and all over his State.
  Too many students nationwide--more than 1 million children--slip 
through the cracks and do not receive free or reduced-priced lunches 
for which they are eligible. In Ohio, about 700,000 children are 
eligible for reduced-priced or free breakfast or lunch. Every day, that 
number is significantly fewer as to those children who actually receive 
lunch and breakfast.
  Understand, too, on weekends in the summer months, those numbers 
shrink dramatically. There are feeding programs in the summers, but 
only about 1 out of 10 children who are eligible actually gets those 
free breakfasts, free lunches, free snacks in those summer months. So 
the effects of poor nutrition reach beyond the boundaries of hunger. It 
also fuels childhood obesity, ironically. So it plagues communities 
across the Nation.
  That is why this reauthorization is so important. Every 5 years, we 
have a chance to make the programs and resources available to our 
children better and more effective. This year we did that, and the 
Senate passed it today.
  The bill will improve the quality of food in the National School 
Lunch Program and make sure children who need the help most are 
actually getting it. Each day, some 30 million schoolchildren across 
the country participate in the National School Lunch Program,

[[Page 15263]]

from cities as large as Cleveland and Cincinnati and Columbus to rural 
towns such as Gallipolis and Galion and Grafton.
  Each school day, the number of schoolchildren receiving free or 
reduced-price meals increases as more families struggle with high 
unemployment and increased poverty. We know that during the extension 
of unemployment benefits, the number of families who lost their jobs, 
then lost their unemployment insurance, then lost their health care, 
then lost their cars in some cases and in far too many cases then lost 
their homes to foreclosure--that those families even more relied on the 
school breakfast and lunch program.
  The reauthorization includes provisions from the Hunger Free Schools 
Act that Senator Casey from Pennsylvania and Senator Bennet from 
Colorado and I introduced earlier this year.
  This legislation would auto-enroll eligible children and eliminate 
duplicative paperwork that costs schools and families valuable time 
and, in too many kids' cases, access to healthy school meals. It would 
allow eligible schools in high-poverty areas to serve universal free 
school lunches and breakfasts. In Ohio, an estimated 432 schools 
enrolling more than 150,000 students could opt into this program. So 
making this part of the reauthorization absolutely matters to embrace 
more children in these programs.
  This bill is about reaching the very children--the neediest and most 
vulnerable--we should have been reaching in the first place.
  The reauthorization would also expand the Afterschool Meal Program 
and the Summer Food Service Program, which play critical roles in 
childhood development outside of the classroom. We know that for 
particularly young children, if they are not eating right, their 
development as sentient, strong, healthy, intelligent human beings is 
significantly arrested.
  Less than 10 percent of Ohio's eligible schoolchildren receive summer 
nutrition assistance. As I said, in rural Appalachia, across the river 
from the Presiding Officer's State, the numbers are bleaker as meal 
locations are fewer and farther between. The numbers are not good 
enough in Cleveland. They are not good enough in Youngstown. They are 
even worse in Malta and McConnelsville, in Pomeroy, in Piketon, and 
especially in the even more rural areas such as Colton in Jackson 
County, Coolville in Athens County, and those small remote areas where 
meal locations are even harder to reach. By strengthening these summer 
programs, we ensure more children have a nutritious breakfast, lunch, 
or snack during the summer months. It is a key ingredient in keeping 
children healthy, educated, and active.
  Steve Garland of the E.L. Hardy Center--a summer feeding site outside 
of Columbus--tells a story of a single father with three sons who 
relies on the center for meals and mentoring. The father says that 
without the center, his young sons are at risk of falling behind in 
school and getting in trouble in the community.
  It is not just keeping children fed. It also matters for their school 
work. It matters for keeping them out of trouble. It matters for their 
intellectual development.
  Fifty children per day in past summers would show up for a healthy 
meal and recreational activities at the Hardy Center. This summer, 
because of enthusiastic and dedicated VISTA volunteers, attendance at 
the Hardy Center has ballooned to 300 children per day.
  Now, get this: Typically, only about 1 out of 10 eligible children 
across the country--Ohio is actually slightly above the national 
average--only about 1 out of 10 children across the country who are 
eligible for free breakfast and free lunch is getting it during the 
school year. Only 1 out of 10 gets these breakfasts, lunches, or snacks 
in the summer--1 out of 10.
  That is why what we did when Senator Dorgan and Senator Kaufman and 
all of us worked together in expanding national service--VISTA; Peace 
Corps; City Year, which two of my daughters have been part of as 
volunteers; AmeriCorps; all of those programs--more of those kids, more 
of those volunteers are now helping these summer feeding programs.
  So instead of feeding 50 people at the Hardy Center, thanks to the 
VISTA volunteers, 300 children--all those 300 were eligible last 
summer; they just were not there because they did not know about it, 
they could not get there, whatever--now, because of these VISTA 
volunteers, 300 children are getting fed almost every day this summer. 
That is the good news. The bad news is that Steve Garland of the Hardy 
Center says there are still some 5,000 children in the surrounding 
communities who do not have a site in their area.
  I said 5,000, and that is just Columbus. That is not the whole State. 
That is not the whole country. That is 5,000 children in Columbus who 
aren't getting fed who are eligible, who won't do as well in this life 
probably because they are not getting adequate nutrition as children.
  When the President signs this bill into law, we will help countless 
other community leaders such as Steve provide more meals and activities 
to keep our children healthy.
  The reauthorization dramatically reshapes and updates nutrition 
standards to help us reduce childhood obesity rates ands put healthier 
food in school cafeterias.
  Steve Grundy, director of Nutrition Services for Dayton Public 
Schools, faces the choice between doing what is right--feeding our 
children healthy foods--and what is cost-effective--serving cheaper, 
less healthy foods.
  Craig Hokenberry of Cincinnati Public Schools sees children with 
stunted growth because they have too little to eat. Without access to 
healthier fresh foods, families and schools look to the local food bank 
for afterschool or weekend meals. Because they are just getting these 
programs during the week, they are getting breakfast and lunch. 
Weekends, not so good; summers, not so good.
  As Nora Nees of Ohio's Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks can 
attest to, these programs are in demand now more than ever.
  Ginny Black in Columbus teaches children about healthy eating habits. 
Ms. Black has been a school nurse in Columbus for more than 20 years. 
She has seen firsthand how good nutrition contributes to higher 
academic achievement and better classroom behavior. According to her, 
reauthorizing the Child Nutrition Act means no more vending machines 
with junk food, no more having to rely on outside vendors for pizzas 
and burgers.
  I was recently in Mansfield, my home town, about 50,000 people, 
visiting with community health workers at CHAP--women who travel across 
the country to provide prenatal care for underserved communities. CHAP 
is a facet of the social service safety net that is working to improve 
outcomes and reduce costs, but it is stretched thin.
  By authorizing the Child Nutrition Act, we can help these workers and 
educators and parents do much more for our Nation's children. The more 
children who are healthy, the more we can lower rates of childhood 
obesity and diabetes. The more children who are not going hungry during 
school, the greater their chance to learn and succeed.
  It is important we took this step today. This legislation means not 
just a lot for hungry children today; it means a lot for the future of 
this country, because children who in the past have not been so well 
served will have the opportunity to eat better, will have the 
opportunity to grow better, will have the opportunity to intellectually 
develop better, and will have the opportunity to be healthier. We owe 
that to our children. We took an important step.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. KAUFMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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