Agriculture Secretary Testifies at Senate Agriculture Committee During Reauthorization of Child Nutrition Programs
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack discusses importance of addressing child hunger, health, and nutrition
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 17, 2009) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today testified in front of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Environment on the opportunities to combat child hunger and improve the health and nutrition of children across the country during the upcoming reauthorization of USDA's Child Nutrition Programs.
Below are excerpts from Vilsack's prepared testimony:
"The reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Programs presents us with an important opportunity to combat child hunger, improve the health and nutrition of children across the nation, and enhance program performance.
"The scale of these programs means that reforms can have a major impact on tens of millions of school children. For instance, the National School Lunch Program serves 31 million school children in more than 100,000 schools across the country. The School Breakfast Program is available in over 88,000 schools and about 11 million children participate on an average day.
"At the same time, we face a continuing problem for some families being unable to provide their children enough to eat. Yesterday, the Department released a report, 'Household Food Security in the United States, 2008' showing that in over 500,000 families with children in 2008, one or more children simply do not get enough to eat--they had to cut the size of their meals, skip meals, or even go whole days without food at some time during the year. This is simply unacceptable in a nation as wealthy and developed as the United States.
"This legislation is an opportunity to in one stroke confront both the challenges of obesity and hunger - with the prospect of better health and well-being in the years to come. Investing in meal quality and access to these critical programs will help support the capacity of our young people to learn and acquire the tools necessary to become the leaders of tomorrow.
"We can improve access to meals and explore new means of empowering communities to reduce food insecurity and hunger, especially among our children. We can make every school a place where nutrition and learning shape the food offered by improving meal standards, eliminating foods that do not support healthful choices, and expanding physical activity opportunities.
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