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Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 1, 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Agriculture and Food

* Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 3307, ``the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010.'' This bill will improve childhood nutrition and also women, infant, and children programs.

* I thank Chairman LINCOLN of the Senate Committee on Agriculture for her leadership in shepherding this bill through the Senate and applaud Chairman GEORGE MILLER's continued commitment as well.

* Nearly one quarter of children live in households that are struggling to put enough food on the table and approximately one third of children are overweight or obese. Both of these statistics represent serious threats to the future of our Nation's public health and security.

* Specifically, S. 3307 will increase school lunch funding to help schools offer healthier meals, limit the availability of junk food at schools, and leverage public-private partnerships to identify successful community-wide strategies to improve child nutrition. It will help struggling families by modernizing the WIC benefit programs in transitioning from paper vouchers to an electronic program. This legislation also provides mandatory funding for innovative state and local projects that address childhood hunger and promote food security for low-income children.

* The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act gives 115,000 new students access to school meals by using Medicaid data to certify eligibility and provides an additional 21 million meals annually for at-risk children by reimbursing providers for meals served after school. This legislation improves the nutritional quality of school meals by increasing reimbursement rates to school districts that meet federal nutritional standards and it eliminates junk foods in schools by applying nutritional standards for all food products sold in schools.

* In California 3.1 million children get help from the national school lunch program. Now is the time to make these changes by passing the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act tomorrow.

* Madam Speaker, for these reasons, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting S. 3307.


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