[Senate Hearing 109-124]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 109-124
SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE,
NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 15, 2005
__________
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.agriculture.senate.gov
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COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia, Chairman
RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana TOM HARKIN, Iowa
THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky KENT CONRAD, North Dakota
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas MAX BAUCUS, Montana
JAMES M. TALENT, Missouri BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, Arkansas
CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming DEBBIE A. STABENOW, Michigan
RICK SANTORUM, Pennsylvania E. BENJAMIN NELSON, Nebraska
NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota MARK DAYTON, Minnesota
MICHEAL D. CRAPO, Idaho KEN SALAZAR, Colorado
CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa
Martha Scott Poindexter, Majority Staff Director
David L. Johnson, Majority Chief Counsel
Steven Meeks, Majority Legislative Director
Robert E. Sturm, Chief Clerk
Mark Halverson, Minority Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing(s):
School Nutrition Programs........................................ 01
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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY SENATORS
Chambliss, Hon. Saxby, a U.S. Senator from Georgia, Chairman,
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.............. 01
Harkin, Hon. Tom, a U.S. Senator from Iowa, Ranking Member,
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.............. 02
Leahy, Hon. Patrick, a U.S. Senator from Vermont................. 16
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WITNESSES
Dole, Hon. Elizabeth, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina......... 03
Panel I
Hopgood, Annette Bomar, Director, School and Community Nutrition
Program, Georgia Department of Education, Atlanta, Georgia..... 10
Johnson, Karen, School Nutrition Association President, Director
of Child Nutrition Programs, Yuma, Arizona..................... 05
Jonen, Ruth, School Nutrition Association President-Elect,
Director of Food Service, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Illinois.. 07
Rivas, Dora, Chair, School Nutrition Association Public Policy
and Legislative Committee, Director, Food and Child Nutrition
Services, Dallas
Independent School District, Dallas, Texas..................... 09
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APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Dole, Hon. Elizabeth......................................... 24
Hopgood, Annette Bomar....................................... 29
Johnson, Karen............................................... 26
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SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS
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TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2005,
U.S. Senate,,
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry,,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:01 a.m., in
room SH-215, Hart Senate Office Building, Hon. Saxby Chambliss
[Chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Present or submitting a statement: Senators Chambliss,
Harkin, Leahy, and Salazar.
STATEMENT OF HON. SAXBY CHAMBLISS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM GEORGIA,
CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
The Chairman. This hearing will now come to order. I
welcome you all as we discuss the school nutrition programs.
Good nutrition is important for good health, and our school
nutrition programs are a key component of our efforts to
provide healthy, nutritious meals to our Nation's
schoolchildren. According to the United States Department of
Agriculture which administers these programs, over 1.5 billion
school breakfasts and over 4.8 billion school lunches were
served in 2004. Of these meals, over 82 percent of the
breakfasts and over 59 percent of the lunches were served to
children from low income families for which the overwhelming
number of these meals were served as free. For some of these
children, the school nutrition programs may be the healthiest,
most balanced meals of their entire day.
We appreciate the efforts of our school nutrition
professionals, many of whom are visiting with us today, for the
job they perform to ensure that our young people have a healthy
start on life. I will say that as the husband and a father of
two school teachers, I hear constantly from my wife as well as
my daughter about the positive reaction, the increased
attention span, and the increased ability to learn from their
children who are provided with breakfast each morning. It makes
a huge difference, and to you folks who are involved in the
school nutrition business, we can't tell you how much we
appreciate the great work you do. We thank you for being here
today and we look forward to this hearing this morning.
At this I'll turn to my friend and ranking Democratic
member for any comment he would like to make. Senator Harkin.
STATEMENT OF HON. TOM HARKIN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM IOWA, RANKING
MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
Senator Harkin. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much for calling this very important
hearing. It's always a pleasure to be joined by our friends
from the School Nutrition Association. I also want to welcome
the Iowans here today, Virginia Bechtold, the president of the
Iowa School Nutrition Association, Teresa Neese, and the rest
of the Iowa delegates in town.
Last year this committee successfully reauthorized the
Federal Child Nutrition programs with enormous bipartisan
support. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of
2004 not only improved the access of low income children to
Federal child nutrition programs but also included provisions
that I believe will dramatically improve how our kids eat at
school.
Kids today face a minefield of nutritional risk. From the
moment they get up in the morning till the time they go to bed
at night they have dozens of opportunities to consume an
unhealthy diet and far too few chances to eat healthy diets. It
is no wonder that the Department of Agriculture found that
scarcely any school-age children and adolescents meet all
scientific recommendations for a sound diet. Even our public
schools have been inundated by candy and soft drinks and snacks
that are high in sugar and salt and fat. Too often, children
don't have the time or opportunity for exercise and physical
activity.
I just saw a figure just not too long ago, Mr. Chairman,
that said that 80 percent of our elementary school kids in
America today get less than 1 hour of physical activity a week
in school.
The Chairman. How many hours of television?
Senator Harkin. Exactly. We are not getting enough physical
activity out there either.
We are making some progress. Last year's Child Nutrition
bill included a provision under which schools will establish
local school wellness policies. These wellness policies will
include goals for nutrition education and physical activity, as
well as nutritional guidelines for all of the food sold and
made available on school grounds. The legislation gives local
communities the authority to set the standards themselves
according to local needs. In doing so are required to involve a
diverse group of individuals including parents and students,
school officials and the public.
Local school wellness policies represent an historic
opportunity for our schools to promote healthy nutrition and
physical activity among children and adolescents. I'm eager to
hear from our witnesses today about their efforts to give kids
healthier choices at school and to implement their local
wellness policies. I thank our witnesses for their
participation in this hearing today, and I also hope we will
hear some comments on the free fruits and vegetables programs
that are now in eight States and over 200 schools and growing
very rapidly.
Again, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for calling this
hearing and I see that one of our leaders in this area is our
leadoff witness and we certainly welcome our colleague here
today, too. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator. Our first witness is a
former member of this committee and dear friend of mine, and a
lady who has a keen interest in this particular issue. She's a
great American and doing a terrific job of representing the
State of North Carolina, my friend, Senator Dole. We welcome
you; we look forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF HON. ELIZABETH DOLE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH
CAROLINA
Senator Dole. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Senator Harkin, good
morning. Thank you so very much, Mr. Chairman, for convening
this important hearing and for allowing me the opportunity to
testify this morning.
Nutrition programs, a central mission of this committee,
have always enjoyed a very special tradition of bipartisan
support. This past year, working together, we crafted the Child
Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, which the
President signed into law on June 30. We know that child
nutrition and education are inextricably linked. It really is
fairly simple, isn't it? When children are hungry, they don't
learn. To compete effectively in the world market, the United
States must have an educated workforce. To educate our children
to their maximum potential, we must have strong and effective
child nutrition programs if we expect each and every child to
meet his or her full potential.
The President has continued his support for child nutrition
as demonstrated by his budget proposal. A very lean budget but
one that recognizes the importance of the child nutrition
programs. I'm encouraged that the President's proposed budget
does not involve program cuts or budget caps for child
nutrition. The nutrition programs are an important component of
this committee's jurisdiction, and I know that you, Mr.
Chairman, and the other members of the committee will work hard
to ensure that the fundamental mission of these programs is not
compromised.
I look forward to working with you on these challenges and
I urge my colleagues on this committee to follow the
President's lead and work to protect these child nutrition
programs.
Let me also raise one area of particular interest and
concern for me: the eligibility requirements for the school
lunch and breakfast programs should be consistent with the WIC
program. As we know, the school lunch and breakfast programs
have three income categories, free, reduced, and paid meals.
The children from families whose income is between 130 percent
of poverty and 185 percent of poverty are eligible for reduced
price meals. It is the smallest of the three categories.
Unfortunately, State and local school boards have informed me
that many parents are finding it difficult to pay the reduced
price fee, and for some families the fee is an insurmountable
barrier to participation.
There are a number of great individuals who work daily with
these children who take money from their own pockets to help
bridge this inequity. In fact many of them, Mr. Chairman, are
here today in this hearing room representing the School
Nutrition Association, and I thank them for all the hard work
that they do on behalf of our children.
This is why I am a strong supporter of legislation to
eliminate the reduced price fee and harmonize the school meal
income eligibility guideline with WIC. If a family qualifies
for free WIC benefits they should also qualify for free school
meals. It just makes sense, and I fundamentally believe this is
the right thing to do. For those youngsters who currently fall
into the reduced price category, this will help make all the
difference in the world; the difference between sitting in
class hungry and malnourished or comfortable and attentive.
For a number of these children, particularly in today's
fast food climate, the meals they are offered at school are by
far, as you have said, Mr. Chairman, the best they have all day
long. Last year's child nutrition legislation authorized a
pilot program funded from discretionary dollars to eliminate
the reduced price fee in up to five States. It is imperative
that we begin to make headway on this initiative as a part of
our national commitment to eliminating hunger and nutritional
deficiencies among the children of this country.
I've written to Appropriations Chairman Cochran,
Subcommittee Chairman Bennett, and ranking member Kohl asking
for funds to initiate the pilot we authorized. I encourage the
members of this committee to join me in this request. I've
suggested an appropriation of $29 million, but the exact amount
will ultimately depend on which States are selected by the
Department of Agriculture.
Mr. Chairman, I applaud you for your leadership and your
commitment to child nutrition; Senator Harkin also. In
addition, let me also take this opportunity to thank you for
your staunch defense of all sectors of agriculture across this
country. I know our farm families in North Carolina are so
pleased to have you at the helm of this committee, Mr.
Chairman, and I thank you for the opportunity today to address
my concerns.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Senator Dole can be found in the
appendix on page 24.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Dole, and just
know that Senator Harkin and I both look forward to working
with you as we explore the expansion of this pilot program,
which obviously was a great idea, No. 1, and is something that
is very much needed in our nutrition programs. I would
encourage all of our folks to grab a handful of Georgia peanuts
as they go back home because there's plenty of energy and
nutrition in here. [Holds up a pocket of Georgia Peanuts]
Senator Dole. There's also North Carolina peanuts too.
[Laughter.]
The Chairman. We'll even share that with them. Thank you
very much, Elizabeth.
For our second panel the committee calls forward represents
of the School Nutrition Association. SNA is a national
nonprofit professional organization representing more than
55,000 members, including over 7,000 in my State of Georgia who
every day provide nearly 33 million high-quality, low-cost
meals to students across the country. The association and its
members are dedicated to feeding children safe and nutritious
meals.
SNA members work in all aspects of the school nutrition
field, from directing school district nutrition and food
service departments, to conducting nutrition education, to
managing individual school kitchens, and staffing school
cafeterias and kitchens. SNA has a 59-year-history, having been
founded the same year the National School Lunch Act passed in
Congress, an act which incidentally is named for former Senator
Richard B. Russell, who is certainly a legend in this
institution and happens to be from my home State of Georgia,
and who served on this committee from 1941 to 1946.
We are pleased this morning to introduce Karen Johnson,
president of SNA, Ruth Jonen, the president-elect of SNA, Dora
Rivas, chair of SNA's public policy and legislative committee,
and Ms. Annette Bomar Hopgood, director of the school and
community nutrition program of the Georgia Department of
Education. Ladies, we're particularly pleased to have you here
this morning. We thank you again for the great work you do and
we look forward to your testimony this morning.
Ms. Johnson, we'll start with you.
STATEMENT OF KAREN JOHNSON, SCHOOL NUTRITION ASSOCIATION
PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR OF CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS, YUMA, ARIZONA
Ms. Johnson. Thank you. Chairman Chambliss, our
congratulations to you on assuming the chairmanship of this
committee. We look forward to continuing the special tradition
between child nutrition and great State of Georgia. Senator
Harkin, and all members of the committee, thank you for your
leadership on the Child Nutrition and the WIC Reauthorization,
and for continuing the tradition of this hearing.
I am Karen Johnson, president of the School Nutrition
Association, formerly the American School Food Service
Association, and I'm also the director of child nutrition
programs in Yuma, Arizona. With me is Ruth Jonen, our
president-elect, food service director from Palatine, Illinois;
Dora Rivas, the chair of our public policy and legislative
committee, and director of child nutrition in Dallas, Texas;
and Annette Hopgood, the director of child nutrition for the
State of Georgia. We are supported by a few hundred of our
dedicated colleagues and our counsel, Marshall Matz.
As we meet here today, we are all aware of the difficult
budget challenge that you face and that we face as Americans.
The size of the Federal deficit and national debt is simply
daunting and overwhelming. We are concerned about what it means
for the economic health of the United States and for future
generations.
Nevertheless, we are here on behalf of our most important
resource, our children. We believe deeply that the child
nutrition programs we administer are vital to the education of
our children and their health and well-being. As we all know,
hungry children do not learn. Without these important child
nutrition programs, children are distracted in school and less
receptive to the lessons being taught, students are more prone
to illness, and school attendance suffers.
We therefore ask that these programs be exempt from any
reconciliation or budget cap that Congress may enact. President
Bush has held the child nutrition programs harmless in the
drive to cut the deficit and we believe that is the correct
position for the country.
In 1981, the child nutrition programs were cut by
approximately one-third and we lost 3 million children from the
school lunch program. It took over 20 years before
participation in the program rebounded to the pre-1981 level.
In 2005, the programs are struggling financially much more
than they were in 1981. The Federal reimbursement rates are
generally not adequate to cover the cost of the meal. The
current Federal reimbursement rate for a free lunch is $2.24
per meal with an additional 17 cents in USDA commodities. It is
very challenging and often impossible to produce a nutritious
meal for that amount of money. Even a small cut of 5 percent or
10 percent would have a dramatic effect on meal quality and
student participation. Historically, we have found that for
every one-cent increase in the price of a meal to children,
schools lose 1 percent participation. We believe that any
decrease in the Federal reimbursement rate at this time would
have a much greater effect.
Mr. Chairman, allow me to mention in passing that it is the
shortfall in the Federal reimbursement rate that has in great
part led to the introduction and expansion of other food items
through a la carte lines and vending operations. Research has
demonstrated that students who choose school meals have better
diets than children who do not. They consume more fruits,
vegetables, milk, and have fewer overall calories from fat.
Last year in the reauthorization act, the Congress
authorized a pilot program in up to five States to eliminate
the reduced price meal program. Under the pilot, the free meal
eligibility guideline would be increased from 130 percent to
185 percent of poverty, the same guidelines used in WIC to
determine who is eligible for free WIC benefits. We urge
funding for this important pilot.
Over 500 local and State school boards have endorsed the
elimination of the reduced price programming. For too many
families in the income category, the reduced price fee of 40
cents per meal per child for lunch and 30 cents for breakfast
is simply too much money, and therefore, a barrier air to
participation. The reduced price category is the smallest of
the three income categories; approximately 9 percent of the
children in the school lunch program are in the reduced
category. Eliminating the reduced fee would extend the benefits
of the school meal program to low income working households and
we believe we should be tested through the pilot program.
The amount of money needed for the pilot would, of course,
depend on the size of the States selected by USDA to
participate. The department would not select the States until
the money is appropriated. Senator Dole, the sponsor of this
legislation proposing the elimination of the reduced price
category, has suggested an appropriation of $29 million. We
support this amount.
The summer food service program is the most underutilized
of the Federal nutrition programs. While almost 16 million
children participate in the free or reduced price meal programs
at school, only 2 million children are served during summer
months. One of the biggest barriers to participation is the
lack of approved sponsors. One of the major barriers to
recruiting sponsors is the burdensome administrative
requirements for the program.
Several years ago Chairman Lugar authored a provision
calling for a pilot program to demonstrate the effects of
simplified administration of the program. The 14-State pilot
reduced paperwork by using the same method of program
reimbursement used in the regular school meal program.
The pilot worked well and last year the pilot was made
permanent and the number of States participating in the program
was increased from 14 to 20. We would encourage the Congress to
further increase the number of States until every State
operates under the simplified procedures of the Lugar pilots.
Childhood obesity has captured the Nation's attention, as
well it should. The statistics are frightening. Yet for all
we're spending as a Nation on Federal nutrition programs and
health care costs for diseases where obesity is a risk factor,
we spend almost nothing on nutrition education and nutrition
promotion. The reauthorization act authorized several
initiatives in this area.
The first is teaching children to make healthy choices in
the foods they eat and the importance of physical activity. The
act authorizes a team nutrition network that would combine
support for the team nutrition program with a program of grants
to the States and local districts to deliver both team
nutrition materials and programs developed by the States and
local districts.
Children today are bombarded with messages about what they
should eat. It is essential that children also receive
balanced, positive messages to reinforce the health curriculum
being taught in the classroom. Therefore, we urge the Congress
to appropriate 50 cents per child per year for nutrition
education and nutrition promotion. This modest amount of money
would complement the investment being made in the nutrition
programs by helping children learn to make healthy food choices
and engage in physical activity.
Mr. Chairman, Senator Harkin, members of the committee,
thank you again for the opportunity to present this testimony.
Now I would like to turn to my fellow panel members and asked
them to present their brief comments. Ruth Jonen, the SNA
president-elect will focus on the new local wellness policy
section of last year's reauthorization law, a section we are
very excited about, and what we're doing to gear up to
implement it. She will be followed by Dora Rivas, food service
director from Dallas Independent School District in Texas, and
then Annette Hopgood from the great State of Georgia.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson can be found in the
appendix on page 26.]
The Chairman. Thank you.
Ms. Jonen.
STATEMENT OF RUTH JONEN, SCHOOL NUTRITION ASSOCIATION
PRESIDENT-ELECT, DIRECTOR OF FOOD SERVICE, HOFFMAN ESTATES,
PALATINE, ILLINOIS
Ms. Jonen. Good morning. Mr. Chairman, Senator Harkin,
members of the committee, thank you very much for this
opportunity to add a few words about the local wellness policy
section of last year's reauthorization bill. We believe this
section presents a great opportunity to improve the nutritional
environment in our Nation's schools.
We wish to commend the committee for this new, imaginative,
and important section of the law. As you know, Section 204 of
the reauthorization will require each local educational agency
that participates in Federal child nutrition programs, to
establish a local wellness policy. The local policy shall
include goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and
nutrition guidelines for foods available on the school campus.
The law is not prescriptive in dictating what the local goals
shall be, only that the local education agency shall put it on
their agendas and establish goals that best serve its
community.
The School Nutrition Association believes this was a very
creative approach to a very difficult challenge. This section
also complements other parts of the legislation that seek to
improve nutrition education and nutrition promotion. The new
wellness initiative has already stimulated a lot of thought and
discussion across the country and within our association.
Internally, the School Nutrition Association has convened a
task force that just met a couple of weeks ago here in
Washington to develop a tool to assist local school districts
draft their own wellness policy. The task force gathered data
and sample policies from across the country and we'll be
sharing those practices with other school districts. Our goal
is to focus attention on wellness policies without being
prescriptive.
A good example of establishing a partnership approach to
the local wellness policy comes from Karen Johnson's own home
State of Arizona. Championed by the State superintendent for
education, Arizona has worked with a team of educators, school
administrators, school food service directors, health
professionals, and private industry to develop a model policy
as a guide for schools in Arizona. The model has been piloted
in eight schools and evaluated for both nutritional and
financial impact. All schools realized at least the same amount
of revenue from a la carte and vending sales. In fact some saw
substantially greater income from these two revenue sources
after implementing that policy.
Senator Harkin, I know you are particularly interested in
school wellness policies so we did a little background research
on how schools in Iowa are implementing the local wellness
policies. Currently, schools across your State and beginning to
establish their committees that will put together their local
wellness policies. The Iowa School Nutrition Association is
partnering with the Iowa Department of Education to do five
workshops across the State to help school understand their
responsibilities and the requirements under the law for local
school wellness policies in last year's child nutrition bill.
The Iowa Department of Education is also working with the Iowa
Association of School Boards to form a task force that will
draft a model policy for schools to use as a starting point for
their own local wellness policies.
In general, as is the case across the country, a wide
variety of stakeholders in Iowa are coming together to
collaborate on the local wellness policies. We are excited by
the energy and the enthusiasm that they are bringing to their
task. Such a level of collaboration on school nutrition issues
is unprecedented and it is, in my opinion, vindication of the
wisdom of this committee in putting the local wellness policies
into the law.
In short, Mr. Chairman, Senator Harkin, we look forward to
working with educators, parents, students, community health
professionals, and other interested parties to implement the
law. We are excited by the opportunities presented by the local
wellness policies and we believe they present an extraordinary
opportunity to transform our children's eating habits at
school. The larger goal, of course, is to promote student
health and reduce childhood obesity. Thank you so much for
including this section in the law.
Now I'll turn it over to Dora. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Jonen.
Ms. Rivas.
STATEMENT OF DORA RIVAS, CHAIR, SCHOOL NUTRITION ASSOCIATION
PUBLIC POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, DIRECTOR, FOOD AND
CHILD NUTRITION SERVICES, DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT,
DALLAS, TEXAS
Ms. Rivas. Thank you, Ruth.
Mr. Chairman, Senator Harkin, and members of the committee,
from a local perspective, one of the most important reforms we
can have in the school nutrition programs is to eliminate the
reduced price meal category. It is truly a barrier to
participation in the program and access to a nutritious meal.
Forty cents may not sound like a lot in Washington, but back
home 40 cents for lunch per child per day and 30 cents for
breakfast per child per day adds up, and it is a significant
amount for low income children to pay. When one extends this to
an average low income family of four who already qualifies for
WIC, they just cannot afford even that.
In Dallas ISD, our current enrollment is approximately
158,000 students. Of those, 109,000 students, 69 percent of our
enrollment, are eligible for free meals, and 14,200 students, 9
percent of our enrollment, are eligible for reduced price
meals. What I see is a gap between those that are eligible and
those who actually participate. What is interesting is that
those who qualify for reduced price meals, only 14 percent
participate in the breakfast program and only 75 percent of
those participate in the lunch program.
Studies have shown the relationship between nutrition and
learning. In my previous job as food service director with the
Brownsville Independent School District in Brownsville, Texas
under a special assistance, provision two, students things were
offered free meals regardless of their ability to pay. When we
initially went into the program about 10 years ago I received
phone calls from reduced price category families indicating how
appreciative they were not to worry about their children having
a healthy meal at school. The 40 cents for lunch and 30 cents
for breakfast was a true hardship for their families.
Mr. Chairman, I agree with your wife and daughter in their
observations. What I have learned in observing students
throughout the years is that students who are hungry are less
attentive in the classroom and are more likely to perform
poorly in school, and in many cases the school meal is the only
nutritious meal they receive all day. I also learned that
although it may be a parent's responsibility to provide for
their family, when a child shows up in the cafeteria line and
doesn't have money to pay for their meal, it is not their fault
and they are still hungry.
In Dallas, I pointed out earlier that I see a gap between
those that are eligible for reduced prices and those who
actually participate in the program. Evidence of students not
having money to pay for their meals is the over $85,500 that is
spent in Dallas each year to prepare cheese sandwiches and milk
for those students who didn't have money to pay for their
meals. As food service directors and cafeteria employees at
schools, we cannot in good conscience let a student go without
eating, and thus, we end up absorbing the cost of this food.
This translates to lost revenue that is not being spent on
meals being served to all students.
Also, on those days, the child is missing other very key
nutrients that are important in their growth and development.
We do not want any of our children to be left behind,
especially the disadvantaged. The gap to access for a
nutritious meal and improved student classroom performance for
those disadvantaged students can be closed by eliminating the
reduced price meal category. These students who qualify for
reduced prices are the same students that qualify for benefits
under the WIC program.
Thank you for your time and attention this morning.
Childhood wellness is a big issue across the Nation. Providing
adequate nutrition to our children should receive the highest
legislative priority. Our biggest investment is their children.
They are our future. Appropriating funds to provide all
students with a healthy, safe meal at no cost in a nurturing
environment should be our ultimate goal. Eliminating the
reduced price meal, or at minimum, appropriating funds for the
pilots to test this initiative is an important move forward.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Rivas.
Ms. Hopgood, a special welcome to you. We look forward to
hearing from you.
STATEMENT OF ANNETTE BOMAR HOPGOOD, DIRECTOR, SCHOOL AND
COMMUNITY NUTRITION PROGRAM, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Ms. Hopgood. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Mr.
Harkin. We certainly appreciate being here today and want to
congratulate you on your election to chair of this very
important committee.
I guess I'm here today representing not only the Georgia
Department of Education, but also other State agencies across
the country who are responsible for implementing those statutes
that originate here in this committee. Despite my youthful
appearance, I am currently the most senior State agency
director in the country, so I'm here to offer you my own and my
department's assistance in your chairmanship as you go through
this process of making important decisions about the school
nutrition program. We especially appreciate your continuing the
tradition here today of having this hearing. This is an
opportunity for those of us who are practitioners to see you
face-to-face, thank you for what you are doing for our program,
and to let you know that we look to you for the leadership that
we know that you will provide.
I bring greetings to you today from the State
superintendent of schools, Kathy Cox, and she wanted me to
remind you and share with you that she has a very strong
opinion that school meals do in fact have a tremendous impact
on and are an integral part of her efforts for Georgia to lead
the Nation in improving student achievement. Over the last 4
weeks I have been able to meet with over 50 local school board
members through the Georgia School Boards Association meeting
at both Lake Blackshear and at Lake Lanier, where we discussed
the relationship between health and academic achievement, and
introduced the concept of the local wellness policies to these
board members who are very excited about finding something
within the school environment that they can control that will
have positive impact on the health of children and their
academic achievement. There are a lot of things that we cannot
control that our children bring to school each day, but we can
control the school environment, and they clearly understand
that.
Down to my key point, however, it's just downright exciting
to see Georgia peanuts again in this committee room. As you
well know, there is a special and a long-standing tradition
between Georgia and the child nutrition program and you alluded
to this earlier. I constantly remind my colleagues across the
country that it is the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch
Act that we work diligently to implement across this country.
Each time a Georgian, Senator Russell, Senator Talmadge, has
chaired this committee, this distinguished committee, the
school nutrition program has made historical advances. We look
forward to your leadership and we have great expectations for
your leadership.
Today, I am joined by a Georgia delegation numbering over
70.
The Chairman. By far the best-looking group here.
Ms. Hopgood. I know. It's just a shame but that's just the
way it is. About half of those with us today are industry
partners who help us get the supplies and materials and the
foods into our schools that we need to provide the services
that we do. The 7,004 members of the Georgia School Food
Service Association and my own staff at the department of
education and Mrs. Cox are available to help you in any way
that we possibly can in executing your leadership role.
We offer you the practical knowledge that we have gained by
serving 1.1 million, or 74 percent of our children, lunches
every day at school. That represents about 5 percent of all the
lunches that are served across this country, which is very
significant. We have one of the highest rates of student
participation in the lunch program and the breakfast program in
the country. We also serve 500,000 breakfasts and snacks every
day. Systems such as Thomas County in south Georgia are finding
creative ways to take breakfast into the classroom so that they
can reach more children and can also extend the instructional
time for our classroom teachers.
I'm just delighted to be here today and appear with the
School Nutrition Association. I've been affiliated with the
association since you don't what to know when. I'm also very
delighted to be affiliated with their efforts on behalf of
young people. I'll be happy to answer any questions today or in
the future.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hopgood can be found in the
appendix on page 29.]
The Chairman. Thanks to each of you, again, very much for
your work, and particularly thank you for being here today to
help spread the good message about what's happening out there
all across America with this program. It's pretty obvious that
the President thinks an awful lot of the fact that we need to
make sure that our children are eating well before they begin
school each day. That's one reason in these very difficult
budget times that we're in right now that he has seen fit not
to ask us to achieve any savings in this program.
Ms. Johnson, many of us can imagine that kids can sometimes
be picky about what they eat. Having two myself, I know exactly
what that's all about. Knowing that school meals must meet
Federal guidelines for nutrition, specifically for the meals
that you serve, how difficult is it for you to plan your menus
with food that kids want to eat and that also meets those
nutritional requirements?
Ms. Johnson. We're serving foods that children do want to
eat. We're serving pizza with low fat cheese, perhaps more
fiber in the crust. It's meeting the dietary guidelines. We
have fresh fruit and vegetable bars. We have low far milk.
There's juice. I believe we are serving those foods that
children want to eat.
The Chairman. I'm curious too about your summer program.
Tell me again what percentage of folks it is you reach. I know
some of our local programs where they're taking advantage of
that, but the need for additional sponsors and the problem with
getting additional sponsors, is a lot of that problem due to
the Federal paperwork involved? If so, can you enlighten us a
little bit on that please?
Ms. Johnson. Yes, it's another set of paperwork that's
pretty detailed and is pretty burdensome to the program. I know
in Arizona I was able to--and it's one of the States that I'm
able to just go right into the summer program under the same
paperwork that I've operated and the same rules and regulations
that we run the regular program on. It's an easy transition. It
doesn't put up a barrier to myself as a sponsor, or perhaps
someone in the community that would like to be a sponsor. It's
easy transition.
In some States it's not simplified paperwork and it is a
barrier.
The Chairman. Ms. Rivas, I note that obviously commodities
given to school systems by USDA plays an integral role in the
diets that you provide for our children. Could you tell us a
little bit about how that works from the standpoint of
practical day-to-day operation? Has the amount of commodities
given to the systems fluctuated over the last several years?
Ms. Rivas. We can always use more commodities, particularly
as difficult a time as we have making ends meet. The quality of
commodities has been improving through the years. We have had
simplified processes in being able to take commodities that our
farmers produce and being able to produce them into products
that are premanufactured that students will like. For example,
taking whole turkeys and already having them processed into
turkey roast or chicken nuggets, making them a lot more
acceptable to our students.
The Chairman. Ms. Hopgood, you mentioned what's happening
in Thomas County, which happens to be adjoining to me. I know
those folks down there and I know they run an awfully good
school system. Is it a matter of thinking out-of-the-box or are
these some ideas that have come out of various meetings like
this that you've held around the State or around the country?
Could you just enlighten us a little bit on that?
Ms. Hopgood. I feel sure that there are efforts around the
country to do breakfast in the classroom, grab-and-go
breakfast. In some of our schools we have close to 100 percent
of the children that are in fact eating breakfast, just like
they eat lunch, which is almost amazing. We serve about 55
percent of our free and reduced children at breakfast, but we
also have one of the highest rates of paying children who eat
breakfast at school, because parents see that as a convenience
to them because they are both working and get up and out.
In the particular case of Thomas County, they have
exceptional leadership. The school nutrition director there,
Karen Green, whose husband happens to be the school
superintendent--I say they sleep together and that's the reason
she does so well in her position there.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Hopgood. She would be very disappointed if I didn't
tell you that today. She worked very diligently with her school
principals and her classroom teachers so that they could
implement procedures that were very efficient and that moved
that process on there. She has schools where they're serving
not only economically needy children but they're reaching
almost 100 percent of their student population at breakfast. We
know there's no research stronger that shows the relationship
between health and academic achievement than that related to
breakfast and academic achievement. We have a lot of people--
that's being done in north Georgia, it's being done in DeKalb
County. It's been very successful where they have worked
through the efficiency issues, the procedures locally.
The Chairman. Senator Harkin.
Senator Harkin. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I'm sorry, I'm going to have to leave. I have another
committee, a Labor Committee I've got to go to, but I did want
to hear the testimony and again to express my gratitude to all
of you here in the School Food Service Association which is now
called the School Nutrition Association, for all that you've
done for so many years to get our kids a good healthy start in
life. If it weren't for the school breakfast and the school
lunch program, I can dare say what shape our country would be
in today. The vision of a Richard Russell from Georgia and
others who came before us have been fulfilled by all of you in
this room and I thank you for that.
As you mentioned in your testimony, Ms. Johnson, Ms. Jonen,
you too, we do have, by all accounts and by the findings of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we do have an
obesity epidemic among our kids. We know that. It's there, and
we can't sweep it under the rug.
We also know that diabetes is happening earlier and earlier
in life. It's something that calls for pretty immediate action.
I don't know that we can think about what we might do in the
next decade or two. We ought to be thinking in terms of what we
do next year and the year after and the year after to starting
changing our course of action in our schools. Kids learn at an
early age what to eat and what to like. When they are bombarded
by up to 40,000 TV ads before they ever start school about high
sugar, high fat content foods, that's what they develop a
liking for.
There were those, back when the school lunch program
started who said this had no business in school. Schools were
there to teach kids, educate them, not to feed them. We've
gotten over that hurdle. It's like physical exercise. When I
was a kid growing up, I bet you too, Mr. Chairman, we had
recess and we had to go outside and do something. We had to. In
Iowa about the only time you could stay indoors during recess
or lunch period was if it was 20 below or something like that.
Maybe you could stay inside.
Senator Leahy. Not in Vermont.
Senator Harkin. That's summer in Vermont. What the heck.
[Laughter.]
Senator Harkin. We now know that we've got to address this
in our schools, which leads me to this whole idea of nutrition
and wellness. Now you mentioned the wellness policies and
things were moving ahead. I was somewhat concerned that schools
around the country should develop their own, but what are the
guidelines? A lot of people just don't know. We don't have the
ability to understand what these guidelines ought to be, so in
last year's appropriation bill I put in funding that was
supported on both sides of the aisle for the Institute of
Medicine to do a study, and to provide some guidelines. They're
not mandatory, but to provide a checklist, guidelines that were
scientifically based for schools to follow. Now I hope that
guideline will be done maybe in a year, year-and-a-half, or
something like that. I hope in the meantime you proceed on, and
that school districts proceed on in developing their own
wellness policies. If some of them are not scientifically
based, then they can modify them later on.
The second thing I wanted to just ask is that one of the
areas of the testimony that the School Nutrition Association
did not touch upon was the fruit and vegetable program. Again,
this was something started in the 2002 Farm bill, started as a
pilot project in four States. The idea was that a lot of kids
they come to school--especially grade school kids, they come to
school about 9:30 in the morning and they get the growlies.
What happens? What do they start munching on? Or if you're in
middle school and high school, it's always the vending machine.
You can go out and get a nice high sugar drink, or you can get
something that's high in sodium and that satisfies your
growlies. The vending machines are there. I hope we're going to
change our policy on those.
The idea was, what if you provided to kids in school free
fresh fruits and vegetables. Not just in the lunch room--
everywhere. Anywhere in the school. Not just you had to go to
the lunch room at lunch time, but any time. We tested this
theory out in four States, 100 schools, one Indian reservation.
I can sit here today and tell you that not one of those
schools, not one has asked to be taken off the program. In
fact--I wouldn't say all. I don't know that figure, but most of
them have asked, please keep us on it.
This year it's been expanded now to eight States and we're
about 250 schools now in this country. I've visited some of
those and you see these kids eating these fresh vegetables.
They're eating things like fresh broccoli. I saw kids eating
fresh spinach. They never had it before. Eating carrots, eating
everything from apples and oranges to bananas. I had one
teacher this weekend told me in Iowa about this--she said, I
saw a sixth-grade kid in a new school, this is a new school
that had been added on, picked up a banana and tried to eat the
banana with the peel on it. Had never had a fresh banana;
sixth-grade kid.
What I've found in these schools is these kids are eating
these fresh fruits, kiwi fruits, oranges, apples, you name it,
pineapple, and guess what, in the middle and high schools
they're not putting money into vending machines. In the grade
schools, the teachers say that kids are learning, they're
calming down, they're studying better, they're happier kids.
Again, it's been a very positive program and again I'm going to
ask the Senate Appropriations Committee to add some more money
for this.
I guess my question after all that is, does the School
Nutrition Association support a further expansion of the fruit
and vegetable program?
Ms. Johnson. Absolutely, Senator.
Ms. Jonen. Senator, it's almost as though you were a plant
in our audience yesterday. We had so many of our School
Nutrition Association colleagues who are in States who do not
have the opportunity to participate in the fresh fruit and
vegetable program who are saying, what about me. I'm in
Illinois and I would say, what about me? We can maybe scoot
across the river into Iowa and pick your pocket a bit. That's a
wonderful program that has a great potential. It needs money.
If you are so inclined, we would be most happy to expand that
program to every State in the country.
Senator Harkin. God bless you. It's about 35 cents, less
than 35 cents per child. That's for two servings a day. That's
a pretty good investment. I thank you for that, and I thank you
for support of and I hope that we can keep this moving. I know
we can't do it overnight. I understand it. If we can keep this
momentum and keep more and more States coming in--Mississippi
just came online last year and from everything I've heard it's
just been a resounding success in Mississippi too. We just need
to keep expanding it.
Thank you all very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I apologize I have to
leave.
The Chairman. That's quite all right. Thank you for your
keen attention, Senator Harkin, to this issue. I look forward
to working hand in hand with you, as we always do on the
Agriculture Committee in a bipartisan way, to make sure that we
further promote the issues which we've talked about today. In
addition to having a wife and a daughter who are teachers, I
have a son-in-law in Georgia who's a vegetable farmer, so I'm
particularly intrigued. He's in Georgia.
Senator Harkin. Georgia is coming on board pretty soon.
The Chairman. Senator Leahy.
Senator Leahy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me brag about
my grandchildren. I happen to have the pictures.
The Chairman. We will trade.
STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK LEAHY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM VERMONT
Senator Leahy. In the nutrition area, and I am not going to
ask questions, I just want to make a short comment. Senator
Cornyn and I are holding a hearing on joint legislation we have
over in Judiciary.
I mention that because there are a whole lot of issues, no
matter what you read in the paper, that transcend partisan
politics. Nutrition is one of them.
Senator Dole was here earlier. She and her husband always
had an interest in this. In fact, as many of you know, there
have been a lot of pieces of Dole/Leahy and Leahy/Dole
legislation over the years as there was before Dole/McGovern or
McGovern/Dole. There still is.
Senator McGovern and Senator Dole were down at the White
House about 5 years ago to talk about their plans for a school
lunch program in Africa, something that would have tremendous
help in many of these countries because you have not only boys
going to school because they could get fed, but you have girls
going to school and the societal changes that would come out of
that.
I remember that, Mr. Chairman, because they were both
standing there speaking at the podium, the seal of the
President of the United States in front of it. President
Clinton was waiting to speak after them. Bob Dole turns to him
and he says, Mr. President, George and I are going to stay
right here. You just stand back there. We like it with this
seal.
It is when we work together is when we find what we can do.
We are talking about the budget on the floor and I am given
reason to pause at the comment by some in Congress about the
intention to place the burden of heavy budget cuts on food
assistance programs to the expense of low income families.
These are tough economic times. When people lose jobs and
their incomes decline, programs like food stamps and school
lunch end up, as you know, with increased participation. These
programs do exactly what they were designed to do, support
Americans in time of need of one of the most fundamental of
life's necessities, food.
I want to make sure that when people are talking about
making cuts to the program that they understand the typical
food stamp recipient is a child, is a child. The food stamp
program delivers more food assistance to children than all of
the other Federal nutrition programs.
The school lunch program is also a crucial part of the food
safety net. One of the hallmarks of this committee is to be a
responsible steward of the food stamp and child nutrition
program. Because of bipartisan cooperation and strong
leadership, the food stamp error rate is the lowest in the
program's history.
We streamlined administration of the program by eliminating
food stamp coupons in favor of electronic benefit cards, which
can only be used for food. Last year, working together, we
reauthorized WIC and the school meals program. We strengthened
the integrity while protecting the eligibility of low income
children.
When you talk about getting savings from waste, fraud and
abuse, it's not in those programs. We have worked hard together
to ensure the dollar is spent on food assistance and not spent
on waste.
A piece of legislation that I sponsored a number of years
ago on the WIC program has saved the taxpayers over $17
billion. $17 billion. We make these programs work. There is
unmet food needs in this country.
I worry very much about the wealthiest, most powerful
nation on earth. One of the few--certainly about the only
powerful nation that has the ability to feed itself and have
billions of dollars worth of food left over for export. We
spend billions of dollars on fad diets in this country. We
spend billions of dollars in throwing away waste food. To have
hunger in America is immoral. It is not a political issue. It
is immoral. It violates every precept.
No matter what religion you might belong to, I guarantee
you one of the precepts of the religion is to feed the hungry,
and we should be doing that.
Senator Dole pointed out that for many children, the 40
cents required for a reduced price meal too often means they
cannot afford to buy a school lunch. Now 40 cents does not seem
like a lot to us, but for those children and their families, it
can be a great hurdle.
I appreciate the comments of the School Nutrition
Association regarding the need for expanding the Lugar Pilot to
make it easier for sponsors to participate in the summer food
service program. It helped children in my state of Vermont
considerably.
For children who rely on eating at school during the
academic year, summer vacation can be a long and stressful 3
months, and the summer feed programs would help a lot.
I am glad to see funds for nutrition education high on it
on the School Nutrition Association agenda. Senator Lugar and
Senator Harkin and I have been working for years to improve the
nutritional quality of the food available to our children in
school.
Some of these are efforts in progress, like reducing the
unhealthy foods in schools and, as Senator Harkin was saying,
the fresh fruits and vegetables. We have come a long way. We
have a long way to go. When we are going to provide nutritious
food, we ought to provide nutritious education. It is a good
time to start it.
I met earlier this morning with members of the Vermont
School Nutrition Association. I am always delighted when they
come down here. They have been a great help to me and my staff,
as had Marshall Matz, who is in the audience. They have helped
a great deal.
We are in this together. It is our children we're talking
about. My children are grown but I see the next generation in
my grandchildren and my neighbor's children. I cannot help but
think, and I come from a low income part of our state, I cannot
help but think though, think about not just dollars and cents.
Think of this as something that touches our morality and
conscience as a nation.
We are blessed with so much. We are blessed with so much,
how can we ever explain it to our conscience, to our maker,
that we will leave hungry people in America. That is a shame
and it is something we must always work and trying to stop.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having this hearing.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Leahy.
You can see from the comments from all of us up here how
much we appreciate the great work you do and how much respect
we have for this program.
As we go through both the budget process as well as the
appropriations process, we look forward to continuing a
dialogue with the School Nutrition Association, and we think
your input, your counsel and your advice.
Obviously, we are in very difficult times from a budget
deficit perspective, but I am very pleased that the President
did recognize how valuable these programs are. Hopefully we can
continue down the road of providing additional funding for you.
The record is going to remain open for an additional 5 days
for anyone who wishes to file a statement. Unless there is
anything further, we are going to conclude this hearing.
Again, thank you, ladies, for being here. I thank all of
you in the audience for the terrific work you do for the future
of America, which is our children. God bless you.
[Whereupon, at 11:01 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
March 15, 2005
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