[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXAMINING INNOVATIVE PRACTICES TO IMPROVE CHILD NUTRITION
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTHY
FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, OCTOBER 8, 2009
__________
Serial No. 111-35
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
Available on the Internet:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/education/index.html
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
GEORGE MILLER, California, Chairman
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan, Vice John Kline, Minnesota,
Chairman Senior Republican Member
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia California
Lynn C. Woolsey, California Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas Michael N. Castle, Delaware
Carolyn McCarthy, New York Mark E. Souder, Indiana
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Judy Biggert, Illinois
David Wu, Oregon Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Susan A. Davis, California Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Tom Price, Georgia
Timothy H. Bishop, New York Rob Bishop, Utah
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Brett Guthrie, Kentucky
David Loebsack, Iowa Bill Cassidy, Louisiana
Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Tom McClintock, California
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania Duncan Hunter, California
Phil Hare, Illinois David P. Roe, Tennessee
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania
Joe Courtney, Connecticut
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
Jared Polis, Colorado
Paul Tonko, New York
Pedro R. Pierluisi, Puerto Rico
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Northern Mariana Islands
Dina Titus, Nevada
Judy Chu, California
Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director
Barrett Karr, Republican Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTHY FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
CAROLYN McCARTHY, New York, Chairwoman
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania,
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia Ranking Minority Member
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Paul Tonko, New York California
Jared Polis, Colorado Brett Guthrie, Kentucky
George Miller, California David P. Roe, Tennessee
Judy Chu, California Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on October 8, 2009.................................. 1
Statement of Members:
Clarke, Hon. Yvette D., a Representative in Congress from the
State of New York, prepared statement of Lorna Donatone.... 48
McCarthy, Hon. Carolyn, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Healthy
Families and Communities................................... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Additional submissions:
The Nutrition Consortium of New York State........... 42
Carter, Dr. Gene R., executive director/CEO, ASCD.... 45
Platts, Hon. Todd Russell, Ranking Minority Member,
Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities........... 4
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
Shea-Porter, Hon. Carol, a Representative in Congress from
the State of New Hampshire, prepared statement of.......... 44
Statement of Witnesses:
De Burgh, Richard, president, DJ Co-Ops...................... 17
Prepared statement of.................................... 19
Geraci, Anthony, director of food and nutrition services,
Baltimore City Public Schools.............................. 25
Prepared statement of.................................... 27
Lagnado, Mary A., assistant superintendent for Westbury UFSD,
New York................................................... 13
Prepared statement of.................................... 15
Sharp, Matthew, California Food Policy Advocates............. 9
Prepared statement of.................................... 11
Sheehan, Alice, 8th grade student, Baltimore City Public
Schools.................................................... 29
Prepared statement of.................................... 31
Yargar-Reed, Deborah, physical education teacher, Biglerville
Elementary School.......................................... 20
Prepared statement of.................................... 23
EXAMINING INNOVATIVE PRACTICES
TO IMPROVE CHILD NUTRITION
----------
Thursday, October 8, 2009
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities
Committee on Education and Labor
Washington, DC
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in
room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Carolyn McCarthy
[chairwoman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives McCarthy, Shea-Porter, Tonko,
Polis, Chu, Platts, Roe, and Thompson.
Also present: Representative Woolsey.
Staff present: Tylease Alli, Hearing Clerk; Denise Forte,
Director of Education Policy; Broderick Johnson, Staff
Assistant; Jessica Kahanek, Press Assistant; Alex Nock, Deputy
Staff Director; Joe Novotny, Chief Clerk; Alexandria Ruiz,
Staff Assistant; Melissa Salmanowitz, Press Secretary;
Gabrielle Serra, Detailee, Child Nutrition; Dray Thorne, Senior
Systems Administrator; Margaret Young, Junior Legislative
Associate, Education; Kim Zarish-Becknell, Policy Advisor,
Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities; Stephanie
Arras, Minority Legislative Assistant; James Bergeron, Minority
Deputy Director of Education and Human Services Policy; Kirk
Boyle, Minority General Counsel; Kirsten Duncan, Minority
Professional Staff Member; Alexa Marrero, Minority
Communications Director; Susan Ross, Minority Director of
Education and Human Services Policy; and Linda Stevens,
Minority Chief Clerk/Assistant to the General Counsel.
Chairwoman McCarthy [presiding]. Good morning, everyone. A
quorum is present. The hearing in the House Committee on
Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Healthy Families and
Communities on Examining Innovative Practices in Child
Nutrition will come to order.
Before we begin I would like to remind everyone to turn off
their cell phones and put their BlackBerries on silent so we
don't have beeps and different tones coming through. I now will
recognize myself, followed by Ranking Member Todd Platts, from
Pennsylvania, for an opening statement.
Number one, I would like to welcome everybody. Today we
will examine innovative practices which will help increase
access to child nutrition programs and to more healthy food for
our children in our schools.
Increased access for our schoolchildren is a critical issue
as we move forward in work on the child nutrition
reauthorization. Given the current harsh financial realities
for many families in my district and throughout the nation,
schools have an increasingly important role to play in
providing children with nutritious food during their days. As a
nurse for over 30 years, I have seen firsthand the risks and
illnesses that can result from poor eating habits.
There is also a surplus of data that indicates that well-
nourished students perform better throughout the day and are
less likely to become obese. We have all heard our parents say,
``Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.'' Studies
have proven that parents do know best.
Research has shown that children who regularly eat
breakfast had better standardized test scores, better behavior,
and were less hyperactive than children that skipped breakfast.
Eating breakfast gives you energy, increasing your physical
activity during the day. Eating breakfast reduces hunger, which
makes it easier to avoid overeating and can help reduce obesity
in our students.
Unfortunately, less than half the students eligible for
school breakfast participate in this important program. When
you skip breakfast, you are more likely to skip fruits and
vegetables the rest of the day also. We need to change all of
that.
We know our schoolchildren are not eating enough fruits and
vegetables. Just last week the U.S. Center of Disease Control
and Prevention released a report that found that less than 10
percent of U.S. high school students are eating the combined
recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables.
We all know of the importance of eating healthy foods,
including our fruits and vegetables, to the overall health of
our children in the fight against obesity. The child nutrition
meal programs can make a great impact because that may provide
more than 50 percent of the student's food and nutrition taken
on a regular school day.
We know that change for adults is hard, but if we start to
educate our children early enough we can establish lifelong
habits and the values of healthy living and wellness for the
future. By providing access to nutritious food like fruits and
vegetables we have a wonderful opportunity to establish these
positive lifelong habits.
And of course, we cannot reach eligible schoolchildren
without adequate access to the programs themselves. To reduce
administration wastes and improve the accuracy of the school
meal eligibility determination progress the school meals
programs use the process known as direct certification.
Under direct certification children are automatically
enrolled for school meals based on data gathered by other
means-tested programs. The 2004 reauthorization required all
school districts, by the year 2008-2009 school year, to
directly certify for free school meals children in households
receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as
SNAP, benefits. This means that instead of a parent having to
fill out a form each year for a free or a reduced-price meal,
they are automatically enrolled in the meal programs if they
are already enrolled in SNAP.
Districts may also directly certify children in households
receiving cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families, TANF, block grant or benefits under the Food
Distribution Program on Indian Reservations. Nearly all states
are complying with the requirement that they conduct direct
certification, but not all of them are capturing all the
students that they could.
If we are to ensure all eligible kids have access to these
important meal programs, we need to improve our direct
certification capabilities. The decisions we make during
reauthorization are very important to a great number of
children, and that was why we have assembled such a
knowledgeable panel.
And I again thank you for being here.
We will hear testimony today about some terrific innovation
practices which increase access to the programs and better
food, but by taking a comprehensive approach to nutrition our
children, families, and communities will all be healthier. I
want to thank you for all being here, and I look forward to
your testimony.
I now recognize the distinguished gentleman from
Pennsylvania, Ranking Member Platts, for his opening statement.
[The statement of Mrs. McCarthy follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Carolyn McCarthy, Chairwoman, Subcommittee
on Healthy Families and Communities
I'd like to welcome our witnesses to this hearing.
Today we will examine innovative practices which can help increase
access to child nutrition programs and to more healthy food for our
children in schools.
Increased access for our schoolchildren is a critical issue as we
move forward in our work on the child nutrition reauthorization.
Given the current harsh financial realities for many families in my
district and throughout the nation, schools have an increasingly
important role to play in providing children with nutritious food
during their days.
As a nurse for over 30 years, I have seen firsthand the risks and
illnesses that can result from poor eating habits.
There is also a surplus of data that indicates that well nourished
students perform better throughout the day and are less likely to
become obese.
We have all heard our parents say ``breakfast is the most important
meal of the day.''
Studies have proven that parents know best.
Research has shown that children who regularly ate breakfast had
better standardized test scores, better behavior, and were less
hyperactive than children who skipped breakfast.
Eating breakfast gives you energy, increasing your physical
activity during the day.
Eating breakfast reduces hunger which avoids making it easier to
avoid overeating and can help reduce obesity in students.
Unfortunately, less than half of students eligible for school
breakfast participate in this important program.
When you skip breakfast, you're more likely to skip fruits and
vegetables the rest of the day too.
We need to change that.
We know our school children are not eating enough of fruits and
vegetables.
Just last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
released a report that found that less than 10 percent of U.S. high
school students are eating the combined recommended daily amount of
fruits and vegetables.
We all also know the importance of eating healthy food, including
fruits and vegetables to the overall health of our children and in the
fight against obesity.
The child nutrition meal programs can make a great impact because
they may provide more than 50 percent of a student's food and nutrient
intake on school days.
We know that change for adults is hard, but if we start to educate
our kids early enough, we can establish lifelong habits and the values
of healthy living and wellness for the future.
By providing access to nutritious food like fruits and vegetables,
we have a wonderful opportunity to establish these positive lifelong
habits.
And of course we cannot reach eligible schoolchildren at all
without adequate access to the programs themselves.
To reduce administrative waste and improve the accuracy of the
school meal eligibility determination process, the school meals
programs use a process known as ``direct certification.''
Under direct certification, children are automatically enrolled for
free school meals based on data gathered by other means-tested
programs.
The 2004 reauthorization required all school districts, by the
2008-2009 school year, to directly certify for free school meals
children in households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, known as ``SNAP'' (CMC--``SNAP'' was formerly food stamp)
benefits.
This means that instead of a parents having to fill out a form each
year for free or reduced price meals, they are automatically enrolled
in the meal programs if they are already enrolled in SNAP.
Districts may also directly certify children in households
receiving cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) block grant or benefits under the Food Distribution
Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).
Nearly all states are complying with the requirement that they
conduct direct certification, but not all of them are capturing all the
students that they could.
If we are to ensure all eligible kids have access to these
important meal programs, we need to improve our direct certification
capabilities.
The decisions we make during reauthorization are very important to
a great number of children, and that is why we have assembled such a
knowledgeable panel.
We will hear testimony today about some terrific innovative
practices which increase access to programs and better food.
We have our work cut out for us.
But by taking a comprehensive approach to nutrition, our children,
families and communities will all be healthier.
Thank you all for being here and I look forward to your testimony.
______
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning to everyone.
I want to first thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this
important hearing where we will explore innovative practices
aimed at improving childhood nutrition.
Access to nutritional foods and a healthful diet is an
important component in ensuring children receive the
nutritional needs necessary to be successful and school and
start the journey towards a more health adulthood. The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention state that 17 percent of
children ages two to 19 are considered overweight. These
overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults
and have a much greater risk of developing cardiovascular
diseases, diabetes, and certain cancers.
Several initiatives at both the local and federal level
have taken significant steps in advancing the health of
schoolchildren. Improvements made to both the National School
Lunch and School Breakfast Programs for the last several years
have sought to improve the nutritional wellbeing of our
nation's students.
While the School Lunch Program must meet applicable
recommendations of the 1995 dietary guidelines, many schools
are choosing to go beyond these recommendations. According to
the CDC, the percentage of schools that offer a la carte items
such as vegetables and salads to students has increased 20
percent since 2000, with over 72 percent of schools offering
these items; over 66 percent of schools have chosen to trim fat
from meat or use lean meat, up from 56 percent in 2000.
As a parent of a fifth-grader and seventh-grader--and I
regularly go in and have lunch at both of my children's
schools--I see the improvements and the effort being made in my
home school district, York Suburban. And actually it is kind of
interesting to be sitting in the lunchroom of the middle school
with my seventh-grader of what was the junior high when I went
there, and I always comment that it seemed much larger when I
was there, when I go back as an adult today. But I have seen
great effort in the--both lunchrooms, of the elementary school
and middle school, and that effort to really provide
nutritional meals for our community's children.
The Child Nutrition and Women, Infants, and Children
Reauthorization Act of 2004 required schools participating in
school lunch programs to develop comprehensive wellness
policies. Local efforts have also improved, with over 65
percent of school districts providing funding for staff
development on nutrition and dietary behavior, an increase of
over 20 percent since 2000.
Today one of our witnesses is from my district, Ms. Deborah
Yargar-Reed, a physical education teacher at Biglerville
Elementary School in Adams County. Ms. Yargar-Reed will share
with us experiences in her school where she worked
collaboratively with her colleagues, administrators, and the
local community to increase nutrition awareness and physical
activity.
I certainly look forward to hearing her testimony along
with the testimony of all the witnesses as we address this very
important issue as we look out for the best interests of our
nation's students and, in doing so, look out for the future of
our nation as they become our nation's leaders.
So I thank each of you for being here today, for your
testimony, and again look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
[The statement of Mr. Platts follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Todd Russell Platts, Ranking Minority
Member, Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities
Good morning. Welcome to our hearing. Today we will explore
innovative practices aimed at improving childhood nutrition.
Access to nutritional foods and a healthful diet is an important
component in ensuring children receive the nutritional needs necessary
to be successful at school and start the journey towards a more healthy
adulthood. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that
seventeen percent of children ages 2-19 are considered overweight.
These overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults
and have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases,
diabetes, and certain cancers.
Several initiatives at both the local and federal level have taken
significant steps in advancing the health of school children.
Improvements made to both the National School Lunch and School
Breakfast Programs over the last several years have aimed at improving
the nutritional well-being of students. While the School Lunch Program
must meet applicable recommendations of the 1995 Dietary Guidelines,
many schools are choosing to go beyond these recommendations. According
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of
schools that offered a la carte items like vegetables and bean salads
to students has increased twenty percent since 2000, with over seventy-
two percent of schools offering these items. Over sixty-six percent of
schools have chosen to trim fat from meat or use lean meat, up from 56
percent in 2000.
Additionally, the Child Nutrition and Women, Infants, and Children
Reauthorization Act of 2004 required those schools participating in
school lunch programs to develop comprehensive wellness policies. Local
efforts have also improved, with over sixty-five percent of school
districts providing funding for staff development on nutrition and
dietary behavior, an increase of over twenty percent since 2000.
Today, we will hear from Ms. Deborah Yargar-Reed, a Physical
Education teacher at Biglerville Elementary School, in my Congressional
District. Ms. Yargar-Reed will share with us experiences in her school,
where she worked collaboratively with her colleagues, administrators,
and local community members to increase nutrition and physical
activity.
I look forward to hearing the testimony from our distinguished
panel today. As we move toward the reauthorization of federal child
nutrition programs, it is critically important that we continue to
improve the nutrition and wellness of our children, while remaining
vigilant of the impacts of new mandates on our local school districts.
Thank you, Chairwoman McCarthy.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. And I thank you.
Without objection, all members will have 14 days to submit
additional materials or questions of the hearing record.
I would like to briefly introduce our very distinguished
panel of witnesses here with us this morning. The complete bios
of the witnesses will be inserted into the record.
Today we will hear from six witnesses, each of whom will
focus on increasing access to the programs in healthy food and
nutrition education. Again, I want to thank you for all being
here.
I ask unanimous consent for a member of the full committee,
Representative Woolsey, to sit on the dais and ask questions.
Representative Woolsey has been a leader in child nutrition
issues, and I welcome her when she comes in. And there she is.
Okay.
In the interest of time, given the large number of
witnesses today, I will keep my formal instructions short. I
will now yield to Representative Chu to introduce our first
witnesses, Matthew Sharp.
And welcome. This is your first hearing with us. We
appreciate it.
Ms. Chu. And it is a pleasure to be on this committee.
Thank you so very much.
Thank you, Chairwoman. I would like to take this
opportunity to introduce Matthew Sharp, a tireless advocate for
nutrition and wellness in L.A. County. I had the pleasure of
working with him when I was in the California legislature, and
I sponsored a bill to increase food stamp eligibility by
eliminating the fingerprinting requirement.
It is wonderful to see you in D.C. Welcome.
Matt works in the California Food Policy Advocates, Los
Angeles office. He works to improve the health and wellbeing of
low-income Californians by increasing their access to
nutritious and affordable food.
He travels throughout L.A. County to help increase access
to school and community meal programs and shape policy and
regulations by educating elected officials in Sacramento and
Washington, D.C. on low-income Angelino's nutritional needs.
They have been doing this work for over 10 years.
I know I speak for the subcommittee when I say we look
forward to your testimony.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I thank you for that.
Next I would like to introduce someone from my district,
Mary Lagnado, assistant superintendent for Business and
Management Systems of the Westbury Union Free School District
in Westbury, New York. Mary is a school business official whose
interest in the broad picture of the educational arena
distinguishes her. As a senior administrative executive, Mary
has a broad responsibility for the financial and administrative
operation of the district's budget of $10 million.
I was lucky enough to visit one of the Westbury schools,
called Powell Lane Elementary, this past Monday and observe the
wonderful school breakfast program that they have. I have to
say, on Monday when I went I got there a little bit early just
so I could have a chance to talk to the principal and Mary, and
as the school buses came in the kids formed a line and they
headed straight to the cafeteria. And one thing, as a nurse, I
have to say, each child was given like a Purell to wash their
hands before they ate.
Remember, the flu season is here. Wash your hands. It is
important.
But I have to tell you how impressed I was. You know, I
stayed on the line and I talked to the kids. I wanted to know
how they liked the food, because that is the important thing.
If the food is not tasteful the kids are not going to eat it.
And as I watched them go down the line and pick out their
fruits, the choice between scrambled eggs and French toast, and
then I followed them into the cafeteria, and I have to tell
you, as I talked to the kids, you know, I asked them about the
food program, they loved it. And I know Mary will probably have
other stories, especially for these kids that unfortunately
sometimes, I am sure, it is probably one of the best meals they
get for the day.
But it was amazing to watch--and, you know, grade school.
You know, even when I went to grade school we weren't exactly
orderly. Well, these kids ate and then went down and sat down
on the gym floor, waited to go to the classroom. The older
students went, ate, and then stood in front of their classrooms
in a line to go in.
And I think it shows that having a good breakfast and
seeing the orderly behavior that goes along, it takes that bite
off hunger. And I am sure that they are all doing much better
in school today than they were a few years ago.
I welcome and I look forward to your testimony.
I want to yield, again, to the ranking member, Mr. Platts,
so that he can introduce the next witness.
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I bring apology. Buck McKeon, who was the former chairman
and ranking member of this full Committee on Education and
Labor and now the ranking member for Armed Services had planned
to be here to introduce our next witness. Buck is tied up in an
Armed Services Committee hearing and will hopefully join us
shortly, but asked me, in the meantime, to introduce one of his
constituents, Richard De Burgh.
Richard has served our nation in uniform as an Army
captain, including service in Vietnam as a forward observer,
and after returning home and leaving military service has been
engaged in and worked in the food service for several decades
now, including more than 20 years in food service
His school food service experience has included opening and
managing the largest school district production facility in the
nation, serving as president of the Southern California School
Food Service Association, and serving as a field supervisor and
director of food services for both the Glendale and Los
Angeles, California Unified School Districts. In 2005 he was
awarded the Friend of Child Nutrition Award by the School Food
Service Association. Mr. De Burgh is currently an adjunct
professor at the University of Southern California for the
certificate program for chief business officials, teaching both
food services and purchasing.
Mr. De Burgh is here today to speak to us as the president
of DJ Co-Ops, Incorporated. DJ Co-Ops is located in Valencia,
California, and has been in business since 1989. DJ Co-Ops
coordinates the purchasing for over 1,800,000--I think that is
correct, right--1,800,000,,,
Mr. De Burgh. Two million, now.
Mr. Platts. Oh. Two million school lunches each day in over
1,000 school districts throughout the nation, so we certainly
one, appreciate your service to our nation in uniform, and
welcome the expertise that you bring to this hearing today. So
thank you, Mr. De Burgh.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I want to say something at this point,
what Mr. Platts had brought up. There are many members on this
subcommittee. Unfortunately, a lot of us are on two or three
committees, so by not seeing a full dais, please don't feel
that this is not an important subject. Everyone on this
committee knows this is an important subject, but we all have
to say, ``Okay, where am I going today?'' And that is the way
things work around here.
Again, I would like to yield to Ranking Member Platts to
introduce our next witness, Ms. Deborah Yargar-Reed.
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I would echo your
sentiments. And it is also one of the benefits of your written
testimonies, that our colleagues who can't be here and our
staff of all of us have that opportunity to have your knowledge
shared with us. And it is a challenge--I am on three full
committees and seven standing committees currently, or
subcommittees. So I am supposed to be in the meeting that Buck
is in, so he is there and I am here.
But it is a great pleasure to have one of my constituents
with us here today. Deborah Yargar-Reed has been a physical
education teacher at Biglerville Elementary School in Adams
County, Pennsylvania, since the 2006-2007 school year and has
taught in the Upper Adams School District since 1988.
Ms. Yargar-Reed received her Bachelor of Science degree
from Slippery Rock University in health and physical education
with an emphasis in lifetime fitness. She earned her Master's
degree in health education from Penn State University.
Ms. Yargar-Reed was named the Volunteer of the Year from
the American Heart Association for her work with and
participation in the Jump Rope for Heart event and received the
Gwen E. Unger Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. She was
also featured in the October 2008 issue of Good Housekeeping
for her work and the work of Upper Adams School District on
initiatives for healthy changes in the foods offered to
students.
Finally, Ms. Yargar-Reed attended the Wellness Institute at
Dixon University. It was through this graduate class that she
began her work on the School Health Council within the Upper
Adams School District.
So again, Deborah, we are delighted to have you here and
appreciate your service in the community in Adams County as
well as your testimony.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you.
Our next witness is Anthony Geraci, the director of Food
and Nutrition for Baltimore City Public Schools.
Welcome. Did I pronounce your name right?
Mr. Geraci. No. Actually it is----
Chairwoman McCarthy. We are going to call you Tony.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Geraci. Please call me----
Chairwoman McCarthy. Since his arrival in Baltimore last
year, Tony's department has taken over a city-owned but
abandoned 33-acre farm which is now being used for vocational
training in organic food production for Baltimore City schools.
Tony's focus is on nutrition and vocation training in the
hospitality industry for the kids of Baltimore.
Finally, I would like to welcome Ms. Alice Sheehan. Alice
is an eighth-grade student at City Neighbors Public Charter
School student, Baltimore, Maryland. Alice has been working for
the last few years on getting students access to more
nutritious food in schools.
Alice, I understand there are several of your fellow
students here supporting you today. Is that right?
Ms. Sheehan. Yes.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Could they please stand up and be
recognized?
Thank you very much for being here. [Applause.]
Again, I would like to say thank you for all of you taking
the time out of all your busy lives to be here to give us the
information that you have already gone through in living it and
on experience.
Before we start I want to explain the lighting system. In
front of you you will see a little box there that is going to
be--each one of you will get 5 minutes, so when you start
speaking you will be on green. When it goes on yellow you
probably have like another minute or so to go, and when it is
red if you could follow up and try to close your statements
that would be appreciated. Remember, all your testimony has
been given to us, and believe me, we have all read it.
First I would like to--again, Mr. Sharp, if you would start
with your testimony.
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW SHARP, SENIOR ADVOCATE, CALIFORNIA FOOD
POLICY ADVOCATES
Mr. Sharp. Good morning, Madam Chairwoman, members of the
panel. My name is Matthew Sharp. I work with California Food
Policy Advocates in Los Angeles, as you heard in my kind
introduction from Congresswoman Chu. Like you, we are very
concerned about the impact of the recession on hunger, food
insecurity, and obesity.
The purpose of my testimony today is to share progress from
California and identify next steps for Congress to strengthen
and expand the child nutrition programs. Among all the possible
topics, I would like to focus my brief remarks on a terrific
and underused tool called direct certification.
As you heard in the chairwoman's opening statement, direct
certification is required in the programs. It is a data-driven
method of automatically enrolling low-income students that
receive SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, or TANF, or the
food distribution program on Indian reservations--international
school lunch program for free meals.
There is a highly accurate method of establishing
eligibility and it is extremely inexpensive because the
information was already collected by another government agency.
Expanded by Congress and this committee in 2004, it is an
important part of how the child nutrition programs work.
I wanted to share with you a little progress in California.
Since 2004, we passed a state law that established a statewide
database to match all the students at a statewide level who are
receiving SNAP into the school meals program. That has resulted
in a 37 percent increase in the number of students matched into
free school meals, so that is an enormous amount of time and
expense that local school principals, secretaries, and food
service officials do not have to spend time on.
It is an amazing area of progress. It is doing great things
for a lot of kids. But some students are still missing out on
the benefits of free and nourishing meals, so some innovations
are needed to enroll more students and to provide them with the
good nutrition that Congress intended.
There are two simple ways to think about the solutions. One
is to focus on individual children.
In California, 1.3 million low-income students who receive
Medicaid or S-CHIP public health insurance that verifies their
household income are not benefiting from automatic enrollment
into school meals. There may be at least 3 million more
nationwide. Simply put, Congress should permit use of Medicaid
and S-CHIP data to enroll already-eligible children into free
meals.
Second way to think about individual children would be to
ensure that more students are captured within the existing
system. More than two in five eligible children in 16 states
are not automatically enrolled. Congress should also provide
the tools and incentives so that states reach all the eligible
SNAP and TANF participants with this data-driven, accurate
method of enrolling students.
The second way to think about the solutions is a focus on
schools. A thousand schools in low-income areas of California
that serve over a half million children--an enormous number of
kids in an enormous number of schools--have very high rates of
free and reduced-price enrollment in the meals program. And
enormous number of kids are directly certified in these
schools, yet they still love to collect paper applications for
a remainder of those student bodies.
And so we think that Congress ought to take steps to
provide schools the opportunity of using direct certification
rates as a basis for automatic enrollment into means. Simply
put, school food services ought to be tossing salads instead of
pushing paper. Families are spending too much time on
antiquated and cumbersome and redundant paperwork. It is a
simple fix for an enormous number of households.
And to underline what you have heard from other panelists
and what you have heard in the opening statements, there is an
enormous amount of work to be done to ensure that these
programs actually result in students receiving the meal
benefits, not just being enrolled.
And you are going to hear from some other panelists later
today about creative strategies that Congress can provide
incentives and tools to expand, including the breakfast in the
classroom program, grab-and-go breakfast. There are a number of
opportunities to strengthen these programs in a way that
ensures that we get through the sequence of both establishing
enrollment, providing kids the benefits, and ensuring they
consume a nutritious meal at the school site.
So I provided a lot more detail in the written testimony--
very copious amount of information about the solutions, about
the problems, and about all the steps that Congress can take to
underline these important tools and make sure they are fully
utilized in your communities. I am happy to answer any
questions you might have.
[The statement of Mr. Sharp follows:]
Prepared Statement of Matthew Sharp, California Food Policy Advocates
Introduction. Good morning. My name is Matthew Sharp. I work for
California Food Policy Advocates, in the Los Angeles Office. CFPA is a
statewide nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase low-
income Californians' access to nutritious, affordable food. Since the
1990s, I have worked with school districts and the state agency to
increase the use of direct certification, a Congressionally-mandated
system to automatically enroll children in free school meals, based on
receipt of SNAP (food stamps) or Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) cash assistance benefits. This morning I will share
with you the tremendous progress we've made in California--and across
the nation--to strengthen this process. I also will identify the next
steps for Congress to strengthen and expand direct certification.
Background. SNAP and the child nutrition programs have offered a
nutrition safety net for millions of needy families and children since
the day they started. The nation's deep recession makes these programs
more important than ever. With childhood food insecurity and obesity
escalating at rates that reflect steeply increased unemployment and
poverty, the healthy meals and snacks that the programs provide, the
measurable gain in students' academic performance, and the savings that
strapped families can realize with five less breakfasts and lunches to
supply each school week are among the many extremely valuable benefits
that the child nutrition programs can deliver.
The easiest way for a low-income child to be enrolled for free
school meals is through direct certification. When that process works
correctly, any child who is enrolled for SNAP or TANF cash assistance
is automatically enrolled for free school meals. The parents do not
have to fill out another application or take any additional steps.
Over the past 4 years, California has developed an entirely new
statewide direct certification system that matches student databases
from schools with SNAP and TANF records. In 2005, state legislation was
enacted that required the state to develop a statewide data-matching
system for direct certification if federal funding could be obtained.
California secured USDA funding, provided under the Child Nutrition and
WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, and developed a state-of-the-art data-
matching system.
The system was unveiled in 2007 and won a Best of California
Project Excellence award from Center for Digital Government in 2008. By
implementing data-based direct certification, California school
districts have saved tens of millions of dollars of precious, scarce
resources through reduced expenses collecting, processing and verifying
paper applications. To its credit, the California Department of
Education is not resting on its laurels; it has established a Direct
Certification Advisory Committee to identify improvements to reach more
children and make the system more user-friendly for school districts.
CFPA is proud to serve on this committee along with food service
directors, state officials, and other stakeholders and we have made
recommendations for how to improve the direct certification matching
process under current law. But there are important ways in which
Congress can pave the way to reach more children and move the school
meals program away from antiquated paper-based systems.
Current Data. Unfortunately, the school meals programs miss an
unsettling number of eligible, needy children. This underutilization is
neither acceptable nor necessary. The numbers are sobering. 3.1 million
students are eligible for free or reduced price meals in California.
150,000 are directly certified using a statewide database and 550,000
are estimated to be matched using local county-to school district
matches; these numbers will reverse as California's statewide match
improves steadily. According to a recent USDA report, these systems in
California capture only 85% of students enrolled in SNAP and TANF--an
improvement of 37% over 2004. Some of the children who are missed
ultimately submit a duplicative paper application and get free school
meals, but others miss out entirely on free meals, placing unnecessary
strain on family budgets and potentially compromising their nutrition.
Direct certification is an unusually effective tool because it
increases program access, reduces administrative costs and strengthens
program integrity.
Legislative Improvements. Let me propose new ways to use direct
certification in a sequence of four policy improvements to bring
benefits to more students.
First, direct certification, which currently permits children
enrolled only in SNAP or TANF to be automatically certified for free
school meals, needs to be expanded. We estimate that 1.3 million
children who are income-eligible for free meals in California receive
Medicaid and S-CHIP (Another 3 million or so students are similarly
eligible nationwide; California's share is larger because too few
students receiving public health insurance also participate in SNAP). I
want to point out that these programs verify income-eligibility,
rendering a school meals application duplicative. Unfortunately,
students receiving Medicaid and S-CHIP, but not SNAP or TANF, are not
automatically enrolled in free school meals because federal law doesn't
permit direct certification based on Medicaid and S-CHIP data, and
therefore must fill out a paper application for school meals each year.
These children are living in poverty and are nutritionally needy--yet
do not receive meal benefits that Congress intended. Using data from
these health insurance programs to enroll children for free school
meals would save money, help needy families, and reflect the
indispensable role that healthy food must play in reducing the health
care costs of nutrition related disease--diabetes, stroke, certain
cancers and others.
Congress should authorize the use of Medicaid and SCHIP
data to directly certify eligibility for free school meals.
The second step is to provide states with tools and incentives to
increase the rate of direct certification. Congress just took an
extremely important step in this regard: the Conference Agreement for
USDA's 2010 budget includes $22 million to provide grants to low-
performing states to improve direct certification. We urge Congress to
take the next step and reward states that improve their performance or
have already achieved great results. In 2002, SNAP began to offer
bonuses to states that improved utilization of benefits, increasing
efforts to modernize program access and operations. These bonuses are
proving to be extremely effective motivators; they are good models for
what could be done relatively inexpensively to encourage the states to
realize Congress's goal of improving direct certification.
Congress should fund performance awards to encourage state
agencies to increase direct certification rates.
The third step in the sequence is to create a major simplification
for schools struggling to serve extremely poor student bodies. School
food workers in these schools should be tossing salad, not pushing
paper. Congress should allow schools with high percentages of low-
income students to opt out of the standard application system and
instead receive a meal reimbursement rate based on the school's direct
certification numbers in exchange for serving free breakfasts and
lunches to all students. Under existing law, schools engage in a
costly, error-prone and extremely burdensome pursuit of paper
applications and cafeteria meal tracking, essentially to weed out the
small numbers of children who do not qualify for free or reduced price
meals. This antiquated process is fraught with problems; the bottom
line is that schools expend precious resources trying to collect and
process pieces of paper and still many eligible children are excluded
from good meals they need.
Instead, a formula based upon the data-driven direct certification
of children thoroughly screened and enrolled in other means tested
programs could create a sea change by establishing a paperless
eligibility process for the schools around the country that serve the
highest concentrations of poor children. Such an option would help the
neediest children, and at the same time reduce paperwork and free up
resources for educational or nutrition improvements.
Under a version of this proposal included in the Hunger Free
Schools Act (S. 1343) we estimate that nearly 1000 schools in
California's poorest neighborhoods could opt for this simplification if
they have a strong direct certification process. More than half a
million children attend these schools, representing 9 percent of all
students in California. This option would create an incentive for the
state to improve SNAP participation rates and the effectiveness of the
direct certification process while providing important administrative
relief to struggling schools and a more welcoming cafeteria for many of
our poorest students.
Congress should direct USDA to use a high rate of direct
certification, perhaps over 60% of students, as a basis for
reimbursement rates in lieu of applications in schools that agree to
serve all meals free.
The final step is to encourage schools to take steps to capitalize
on improved direct certification to ensure all children participate in
school meals, particularly in school breakfast, which presently serves
less than half the low-income children who eat a school lunch. In
California, one dozen districts have implemented classroom breakfast in
some schools, with San Diego leading the state with 39 schools serving
breakfast to every student after the bell rings.
The results--attentive, well nourished students, better test
scores, better health, a proven obesity prevention strategy, important
revenues for school cafeteria funds--all over the country have been
truly amazing. As you've heard from other panelists, school breakfast
is the most important meal in an academic day--and the most
underutilized school meal, with only 39% of California's low-income
lunch participants benefiting from breakfast at school. Classroom
breakfast, based upon direct certification that gathers all the
eligible children, is a realistic and doable strategy to reach the
President's goal of eliminating childhood hunger by 2015. The Student
Breakfast and Education Improvement Act of 2009 (S.1480/H.R. 3277)
proposes competitive grants to expand school breakfast participation.
Congress should provide grants to school districts to move
breakfast into the classroom or to another service model that occurs
after the bell rings.
I am happy to answer any questions you might have.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you. And let me tell you, my
staff loves data, so don't worry about that. We love it.
Next, Mary?
STATEMENT OF MARY A. LAGNADO, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT FOR
BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, WESTBURY UNION FREE SCHOOL
DISTRICT
Ms. Lagnado. Good morning. I am Mary Lagnado--I didn't put
the--okay, can you hear me now? Am I okay?
I am Mary Lagnado. Good morning. I am the assistant
superintendent for Westbury Public Schools, and today I would
like to acknowledge that I am accompanied by our president of
the board of education, Karen Campbell, and our food service
manager, Mike Ongus. And is an honor to present to you today
the Westbury School District's innovative strategies in
providing a healthy breakfast and to help students raise
alertness and performance.
The Westbury School District in Westbury, New York, began
the Universal Breakfast Program as a pilot program in March
2009 with the goal of providing students with the proper
nourishment to start their school day. The connection between
nutrition and optimal learning has become increasingly clear,
and the Westbury School District's commitment to this program
is part of our overall mission to educate the whole child and
help every child succeed.
We currently serve a population of 4,200 children, with
four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high
school. Our demographics are such: 61 percent Hispanic; 35
percent Black; 2 percent White; 1.1 Asian; 0.3 multiracial; and
0.2 American Indian. Approximately one-third of our student
body are English language learners.
Our free and reduced lunch rate is 84 percent. As you know,
that is what denotes the percentage of families living at or
below the poverty level.
With the current pilot program at the pre-K and the
kindergarten levels, students are served a hot and cold
breakfast in their classrooms, while at the elementary and
secondary levels student who wish to participate eat a hot and
cold breakfast in the cafeteria. As Congresswoman McCarthy has
said, students are led directly by the school staff from their
busses into the cafeterias to eat this breakfast.
We will fully implement the Breakfast on the Go program
this coming November, and we are thrilled about it, with the
goal of making breakfast accessible to every student. Under
this program, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students will
continue to eat breakfast in their classrooms while elementary-
level students will receive the bagged or boxed breakfast upon
existing their school bus to eat in their classrooms, and the
other student at the secondary level will arrive by bus 15
minutes earlier to allow more time to eat their breakfast.
As a background, in 2004 an obesity study was performed in
our schools--in our high school--by the school nurse which
indicated that a majority of our high school students were
overweight. To address the health eating solutions, the
superintendent, the high school nurse, and I decided on a
specific course of action and we formed the nutrition committee
with the overall idea to affect a paradigm shift in the food
served and selected in the school cafeterias through awareness
and a district-wide commitment to helping students and the
community--the idea of sustaining a balance in metabolism to
permit sustained concentration and endurance for more effective
and efficient student achievement is the heart of the purpose.
We formed an action plan, and what better to start with,
the need of the day, breakfast. That was the aim of this
nutrition committee.
We had a plan of action where we collected data, we visited
the schools, we observed the food choices available in the
cafeteria, we had vendors present nutritious choices for us to
consider, we shared recommendations with the staff for changing
the school menu not only to replace drinks and snacks with the
more nutritious ones, but this is the following what we did: We
replaced white flour bagels with whole wheat bagels, multigrain
muffins, and non-sugar cereals. We reduced the portion of high-
content carbohydrate foods and added fresh fruits and
selections.
We also drafted our wellness policy, which included
nutritional guidelines and had food choices for our board of
education to approve. We also recognized that we needed to have
different eating habits and include exercise.
In addition to this, we also started Family Nutrition
Information Nights. These are held at night at our elementary
schools, and the workshops are conducted by medical
professionals. And one of these partnerships institutions is
the Institute for Healthcare Disparities at the Nassau
University Medical Center. A demonstration using cultural foods
to prepare healthy meals and samples of healthy snacks as well
as cookbooks in English were distributed, so we are really
thinking out of the box.
In summary, the interesting thing is that nurses now--
school nurses have reported that there has been a substantial
increase in awareness that nutrition has on students' health
and performance. District data shows an improvement in the ELA
and math scores on the New York State Assessment. Academic
intervention strategies coupled with the Health Choice
Initiative have resulted in this improvement.
Traditionally, students are more alert and engaged in
morning classes in large measure due to the impact that these
healthy choices have made in the overall wellbeing. Our high
school principal has observed that students are less lethargic
and more focused. In addition, building administrators have
noted less disruptive behavior in the classrooms and the
hallways.
So we are very pleased with the Breakfast on the Go
program. We are going to institute it in November. We were very
successful. The results were that we have increased our
breakfast participation by 25 percent using this new
initiative, and I just wanted to tell Congress how important
this program is to a school like ours, which is a high-needs
district, and we really use the funds.
What I would like to recommend is that districts be given
more commodity foods that can be used in preparing the
breakfast menus, and also that there would be an increase in
the per-meal reimbursement to school districts as a financial
incentive to school districts to make the program more
financially feasible. Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Lagnado follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mary A. Lagnado, Assistant Superintendent for
Westbury UFSD, New York
westbury school district's ``breakfast on the go'' program
gets students ready to learn
The Westbury School District in Westbury, NY began the Universal
Breakfast Program as a pilot program in March, 2009, with the goal of
providing students with the proper nourishment to start their school
day. The connection between nutrition and optimal learning has become
increasingly clear, and the Westbury School District's commitment to
this program is part of our overall mission to educate the whole child
and help every child succeed. With the current pilot program, at the
Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten levels, students are served a hot and
cold breakfast in their classrooms, while at the Elementary and
Secondary levels, students who wish to participate eat a hot or cold
breakfast in their school cafeteria. (Students are led by school staff
directly from the bus to eat breakfast.) Currently, at the Pre-K and
Kindergarten levels, approximately 570 breakfasts are served daily,
while at the Elementary level, 431 out of 1632 students participate,
and at the Secondary level, 300 out of 1900 students participate. We
will implement the ``Breakfast on the Go'' program in November, 2009,
with the goal of making breakfast accessible to every student. Under
this program, Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students will continue
to eat breakfast in their classrooms, while Elementary levels students
will receive a bagged or boxed breakfast upon exiting their school bus,
to eat in the classrooms, and students at the Secondary level will
arrive by school bus 15 minutes earlier to allow more time to eat
breakfast in their school cafeteria.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Westbury Schools Traditional Breakfast ``In the Classroom'' Breakfast
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pre K-K Served hot and cold; exit bus and go Served hot and cold; exit bus and go to
to classroom; aides assist with classroom; aides assist with delivered bag
delivered bag breakfast; 570 served breakfast; 570 served
Elementary grades 1-5 Students who wish to participate eat Box/bag breakfast is delivered to the
in the cafeteria; 431 of 1632 served classroom; All 1632 served
Middle School Grades 6-8 Students who wish to participate eat Box/bag breakfast is picked up before going
in the cafeteria; 125 of 800 served to the classroom; All 800 served
High School Grades 9-12 Students who wish to participate eat All students participate and have greater
in the cafeteria; 175 of 1100 served choices in the cafeteria; 1100 served;
Transportation scheduled for flexibility 15
minuets earlier creating a relaxed
atmosphere
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
background
In 2004, a Wellness Committee was established with representatives
from each of the district's six schools. An obesity study was performed
at our High School by the school nurse that indicated that the majority
of our high school students were overweight. To address the healthy
eating solutions, the Superintendent, High School Nurse and I decided
on a specific course of action. A Nutrition Committee was established
with the overall idea to affect a paradigm shift in the foods served
and selected in the school cafeterias and vending machines through
awareness and a district-wide commitment to helping students and the
community move away from carbohydrates, which turn to sugars in the
digestive process, to foods that enhance activity and concentration.
The idea of sustaining a balance in metabolism to permit sustained
concentration and endurance for more effective and efficient student
achievement in the physical and the academic areas is the heart of the
purpose.
We first set our goals and did so by being one of the first to
implement our District Wellness policy in accordance with the re-
authorization act of 2004. Our next ingredient was to communicate. We
achieved this by forming a district wide nutrition committee which
consists of representatives from each of our schools, District
Administrators, Students, as well as members of our community. This
committee was charged with the task of monitoring the existing program,
implementing any new programs and communicating our goals throughout
the community. The committee also solicited new and exiting ways to
introduce good nutrition as well as the importance of physical fitness
and its part in making the body healthy. The group also reached out to
local hospitals and organizations to help educate our families about
proper nutrition.
Family nutrition information nights are being held. Parents
participate in interactive workshops conducted by medical professionals
through a partnership with The Institute for Healthcare Disparities at
Nassau University Medical Center. A demonstration using cultural foods
to prepare healthy meals and samples of health snacks, as well as
cookbooks in English and Spanish are provided.
demographics
Student population--4,200 Pre-K--12, at four elementary schools,
one middle school, and on high school--61% Hispanic, 35.4% Black, 2%
White, 1.1% Asian, .3% Multiracial, .2% American Indian or Alaskan
Native
Free & Reduced Lunch--84%
District Attendance--94%
Graduation Rate--91% of which 80% are New York State Regents
Diplomas
The district employs 43 people in their Nutrition Program.
Daily breakfasts served have increased from 985 to 1,240.
action plan
We began by looking at food choices in our cafeteria. It started
with the most important need of the day, breakfast. The Committee's
Action Plan was the following:
Data collection: The Committee Members visited each of the
schools to observe the food choices available and children's eating
habits.
Invitations to vendors to present samples of more
nutritious choices.
Visiting schools to share recommendations with staff for
changing the school breakfast menu, to not only replace drinks and
snacks with more nutritious ones but to:
Replace white flour bagels with whole wheat bagels,
multigrain muffins and non-sugar cereals.
Reduce the portion sizes of high content carbohydrate
foods, and
Add fresh fruit selections.
Announcing a teacher led class contest to create a
nutritional value chart for the cafeteria display to promote
nutritional awareness.
Drafting a Wellness Policy which includes nutritional
guidelines.
Drafting a policy on Food Services Choices for approval by
the Board of Education that would permit district-wide implementation
of the recommended changes.
Recognizing each school that makes substantial changes in
eating habits and exercise.
Recognizing the community member responsible for brining
this endeavor to the attention of the local Lion's Club and Rotary Club
who responded by supplying the involved grade levels with bushels of
apples for field day.
summary
School nurses report that there has been a substantial increase in
the awareness that nutrition has on being healthy and student
performance. The district's population is 84% free and reduced lunch
(denoting the percentage of families living at or below the poverty
level). The majority of the students are English Language Learners.
District date shows an improvement in the ELA and math scores of this
population on the New York State Assessments. Academic intervention
strategies are coupled with the Healthy Choices Initiative resulting in
this improvement. Traditionally, students are more alert and
participatory in the morning classes in large measure due to the impact
that the healthy choices make on their metabolism from the breakfast.
The secondary teachers see an improvement in the attendance rates in
the afternoon classes and in the class participation of students in
these classes.
All constituents agree that there has been a significant emphasis
placed on food choices and exercise by the schools; that teachers are
embedding discussion about nutritional ingredients and their effects on
performance in their instruction; that Parent Workshops an Newsletters
contain information on the components of Healthy Lifestyles: food
choices and exercise; that administrators and teachers are making
better choices as a result of serving as role models for the students
and community, and that staff and parents are designing after-school
support groups (exercise and diet clubs) for themselves and students.
In an effort to promote nutrition awareness and further demonstrate
Westbury's commitment to the education of children on the importance of
balanced nutrition and its direct correlation to learning, we
implemented a pilot breakfast program. This program known as a
``Universal Breakfast'' provides a free ``on the go'' breakfast to each
student in each school. This program was very successful and confirms
our goal to provide accessibility to all students. Students are
encouraged to arrive to school early to eat a healthy breakfast prior
to the start of the instructional program so that they can be ``fit''
for learning.
recommendations
To make this program more feasible for school districts, our
recommendations to Congress are the following:
1. Give school districts more commodity foods that can be used in
preparing breakfast meals.
2. Increase the per-meal reimbursement to school districts, as a
financial incentive to school districts, and to make the program more
financially feasible.
Ref: The literature is rich with reference to the effects of proper
eating habits on school children's intelligence and academic
performance (Bogden, J.F. Fit, healthy, and ready to learn: a school
health policy guide. Alexandria, Va.: NASBE, 2000: Schoenthaler, S.
Abstracts of early papers on the effects of vitamin mineral
supplementation on IQ and behavior. Personality and Individual
Difference 1991). There is also substantial evidence of the effects of
improper diets on school achievement (American School Food association.
Impact of hunger and malnutrition on student achievement. School Board
Food Service Research Review 1989).
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you, Mary.
Mr. De Burgh?
STATEMENT OF RICHARD DE BURGH, PRESIDENT, DJ CO-OPS
Mr. De Burgh. Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts,
and members of the Subcommittee on Health Families and
Communities, everything a food service director buys, except
commodities, they buy what they want, from whom they want, when
they want it, delivered where they want it. Why is it except
commodities?
As examples, in California we used to receive frozen
chicken from Arkansas. We would then send the chicken back to
Arkansas to be made into chicken nuggets and they would send it
back to us to serve to schoolchildren.
In Michigan and Ohio they would receive cheese from
Wisconsin. They would then pay to have the cheese sent back to
Minnesota to be made into pizza and then sent back to them
again.
Twenty years ago I led a group of 11 other directors and we
fought for 3 years and, with the help of members of Congress,
we were able to form a cooperative and receive direct delivery
of our commodities, both to ourselves and to the processors we
choose. We now hold over 1,000 school districts serving 2
million lunches a day. The districts range in size from over
37,000 to as small as 21.
In many states even today, the directors have no choice on
where their commodities are processed. In fact, one state
doesn't even process commodities.
In many states, commodities are delivered once a month to
one location and each district must fund and provide a
warehouse, a freezer, or a refrigerator and then transport
those foods from the one location to all the schools in the
district. Directors are forced to develop menus based on
commodities rather than menus that customers want, which is one
of the things that my colleague just referred to.
The cooperative system changes all of that. Because of the
changes in the farm bill several years ago and changes in
industry, we are now providing choices that are both healthy
and customer-friendly. By April of each year, our member
districts know where 95 percent of their commodities are going
and when they are going to be delivered. They choose what they
want and they are getting it.
For example, USDA provides chicken at least eight different
ways. Our members can receive deliveries directly at each
school or have it processed by processors into over 150
different items. In other words, we offer more choices than
Starbucks does coffee.
Our purchasing contracts ask each vendor to agree to sell
to our districts for the lowest price in the state. All except
one have agreed to do that, and that one went bankrupt this
year. We have returned over $1 million in volume discounts to
our local school districts. In fact, many of our members
receive more money from us in volume discounts than they pay us
to coordinate their commodities. This past year, for the first
time, we tied our contracts to the commodity market and the
commodity market went down and our prices were down
significantly.
We provide fresher, more nutritious commodity items. This
past year, with excellent support from USDA, we were able to
implement a pilot project offering fresh sliced apples in
individual packets to our districts. Pavel Matustik, who has
testified before this committee, has an innovative food service
program, and I worked for over 2 years to replicate the
commercial delivery system for fresh produce using entitlement
dollars.
The program was an overwhelming success in the eight states
that piloted it, and hopefully we will be able to expand it to
include carrots and oranges and grapes. Kids will eat sliced
apples, where they will throw away a whole apple.
Stephen Ambrose, in his book on the construction of the
Transamerica railroad, made an interesting observation. In the
18th century, railroad barons were the wealthiest people in
America. Today they don't exist.
The railroad barons should have considered themselves to be
transportation innovators, not railroad barons. We need to do
the same rethinking in commodity foods and distribution.
Business as usual should become an unusual practice.
I am hopeful that this committee will assist us in allowing
more innovation. How? I am glad you asked.
USDA has been innovative in allowing better business
practices. These practices, such as allowing districts to form
cooperatives and arrange direct delivery by their commercial
distributors, should be permitted in all states.
All states receive federal money for state administrative
expenses. Some of this money is earmarked for commodity
distribution, but some states use it for other purposes. USDA
delivers commodities by the truckload for free inside of a
state. If a state does not distribute the commodities, there
should be no charge. In California this charge amounts to $5
million a year taken from local school districts.
Continue to encourage and expand substitutability. USDA is
implementing a new technology to simplify and improve
purchasing and distribution. Use this to review current
business practices at the federal level, the state level, and
the local level. If we were to redesign commodity distribution,
it would look nothing like it started 60 years ago.
In closing, I would like to say our customer has changed.
When I was growing up there were no chicken nuggets, there were
no happy meals. Families ate at home.
Today more than 50 percent of the family's food budget is
spent on food prepared outside the home. When a parent today
says it is time for dinner many children don't know whether to
run to the kitchen or the car.
We need innovation in the national school lunch program so
that when a child is asked where do they want to go for dinner
they will say, ``School.'' Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. De Burgh follows:]
Prepared Statement of Richard De Burgh, President, DJ Co-Ops
Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts and Members of the
Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, everything a food
service director buys, except commodities, is what they want, from whom
they want, when they want it, delivered where they want it, by whom
they want to deliver it. Why is it except commodities?
As examples, in California we would receive frozen chicken from
Arkansas and pay to have it sent back to Arkansas to be made into
chicken nuggets and sent back to us. In Michigan and Ohio they would
receive cheese from Wisconsin and pay to have it sent to Minnesota to
be made into pizza and returned to them. Twenty years ago I led a group
of 11 other directors and we fought for 3 years and with the help of
members of Congress were able to form a cooperative and receive direct
delivery of our commodities. We now help over 1,000 school districts
serving almost 2,000,000 lunches a day. The districts range in size
from 37,575 lunches a day to as small as 21.
In many states, even today, the directors have no choice of where
their commodities are processed. One state does not even allow
processing. The commodities are delivered once a month to one location
and each district must provide warehouse space and delivery to school
locations. Directors are forced to develop menus based on commodities
rather than menus that customers want.
The cooperative system changes all of that. Because of the changes
in the farm bill several years ago and changes in industry we are now
providing choices that are both healthy and customer friendly. By April
of each year, our member districts know where 95% of their commodities
for the next school year are being delivered. They choose what they
want and when they are getting it.
As an example, USDA offers chicken in at least 8 different ways.
Our members can receive deliveries directly at each school or have it
processed by any of over 7 processors into over 150 different items.
The same is true of beef, cheese and many other commodities. In other
words, USDA offers as many chicken choices as Starbucks does coffee!
Our purchasing contracts ask each vendor to agree to sell to our
districts for the lowest price offered in the state. All except one
have agreed and that one filed for bankruptcy this school year. Because
we make the purchasing contracts easier for the manufacturers, we
provided over $1,000,000 in volume discounts to our members this past
school year. This is on top of the lowest prices in the state. In fact
many of our members receive more money from us in volume discounts than
they pay us to coordinate their commodities.
We can provide fresher more nutritious commodity items. This past
year with, excellent support from USDA, we were able to implement a
pilot project offering fresh, sliced apples in individual packets to
our districts. Pavel Matustik (who has testified before this committee)
and I worked for over 2 years to replicate the commercial delivery
system used for fresh produce using entitlement dollars. The program
was an overwhelming success and hopefully will be expanded to include
carrots, oranges and grapes.
The districts in the co-op can trade with other districts in the
co-op. When menus are changed, food orders can also be changed.
Stephen Ambrose in his book on the construction of Transamerica
railroad made an interesting observation. In the 19th century railroad
barons were the wealthiest people in America. Today they do not exist.
The railroad barons should have considered themselves transportation
innovators not railroad barons. We need to do the same rethinking in
commodity food purchasing and distribution. Business as usual should
become an unusual practice.
I am hopeful that this committee will assist us in allowing more
innovation. How? I'm glad you asked. USDA has been innovative in
allowing better business practices. These practices such as allowing
districts to form cooperatives and arrange direct delivery by their
commercial distributors should be permitted in all states.
All states receive federal money for state administrative expenses.
Some of this money is earmarked for commodity distribution but states
use it for other purposes. USDA delivers the commodities by the
truckload for free. If a state does not distribute the commodities
there should be no charge. In California this charge amounts to five
million dollars taken from local school districts.
Continue to encourage substitutability. When a distributor or
processor can certify to USDA that an item is of the same quality as
the USDA specifications and is of American origin substitution should
be allowed.
USDA is implementing new technology in WEBSCAM to simplify and
improve purchasing and distribution. When this is up and running a
review of current business practices should be implemented from the
federal to the state to the district level to see what improvements and
innovations could be made.
In closing I would like to say our customer has changed. When I was
growing up there were no chicken nuggets, there were no happy meals,
families ate at home. Today more than 50% of the family food budget is
spent on food prepared outside the home. When a parent today says
dinner is ready many children do not know if they should run to the
kitchen or the car! We need innovation in the national school lunch
program so that when the child is asked where they want to go for
dinner their answer is school!
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you very much for that
information. Appreciate it.
Ms. Yargar-Reed?
STATEMENT OF DEBORAH YARGAR-REED, PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER,
BIGLERVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Ms. Yargar-Reed. Thank you, Chairman McCarthy and members
of the subcommittee for inviting me to testify today. I want to
offer a special thank you to Ranking Member Todd Platts, my
school's local congressman.
More time in front of the television and computer screens
and less at play coupled with increase calorie intake are
packing the pounds on today's youth. In the Upper Adams School
District we wanted to meet this challenge head on, and
therefore we have come up with various strategies and programs
to implement new ideas of physical activity and nutrition into
our students' daily routine.
The Upper Adams School District is located in rural South
Central Pennsylvania, which covers a geographical area of 90
square miles. The approximate population of the residents is
10,000. The size of the school district itself is 1,729
students, which encompasses five schools--three elementary, one
middle school, and a high school.
In 2006 I attended the Wellness Institute at Dixon
University. Requirements for this class included the creation
and implementation of a wellness project within the Upper Adams
School District. This policy became our district's Local
Wellness Plan, as required by the 2004 Nutrition Act, and we
began implementation of this plan in the 2006-2007 school year.
Activities which have developed out of the wellness plan
include a monthly event which engages the students and staff in
physical activity and nutrition. A few of these events include
a tailgate activity, which promotes school spirit, physical
activity, and nutrition for all students to participate
followed by a healthy snack of fruits and vegetables.
The tailgate activity takes place in September. After the
children have participated in their football challenges, they
have a snack consisting of fruits and vegetables and the
parents have provided the snack for the students.
In Apple Crunch, schools across Pennsylvania celebrate the
Great American Apple Crunch. The event was organized by
Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity, better known
as PANA. At this even, local fruit farmers in our area donate
the apples.
Go Green: a statewide celebration that takes place in March
that helps schools and communities focus on the important role
of vegetables as part of a healthy diet. This event is held in
partnership with Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and
supports National Nutrition Month.
Market Basket of the Month brings together the school
cafeteria, classrooms, home, and community through a strategic
effort to promote healthy habits for students. Wellspan
provides this opportunity for our school district. We are
currently one of six school districts across Pennsylvania who
have been selected to implement this Market Basket program.
Taste Testing is a favorite event for the students. It is
food sampling, better known as ``the polite bite.'' Students
are encouraged to try a new fruit of vegetable and then asked
to go home and share the experience with their family. Examples
of some of the fruits sampled have been kiwi, star fruit,
mango, pomegranate, just to name a few.
I am pleased to share with you changes that have been
implemented in our school cafeteria as a result of the
collaborative nature of the Local Wellness Plan. Rather than
serve whole milk, students may choose from 1 percent or fat-
free milk. White bread is something of the past; sandwiches are
served either on bread or rolls which are multigrain or wheat.
A change has been made from potato chips to the baked chip.
Rather than serve students baked goods daily, the cafeteria has
done away with that and now serves fruit--fresh fruit or
canned.
Our district has created a School Health Advisory Council
networking forum to oversee the wellness policy implementation.
Our committee consists of school administrators, physical
education teacher, health teacher, family consumer science
teacher, school nurse, food service personnel, parents,
guidance counselor, and representatives from Wellspan, which is
our local health care organization.
Initially the Advisory Council was created to advise and
recommend nutrition standards to the school board and
administrations through our wellness policy. The first task of
the council was to draft a written wellness policy. Now that
the draft has been accepted, the Advisory Council makes
recommendations on activities to the school board, such as the
PANA activities, that the individual schools participate in.
The Advisory Council also reviews potential school fundraisers
to ensure they fall within the wellness plan.
The Advisory Council meets four to five times a year. To
date, the recommendations of the Advisory Council have been
received with mixed reaction. We have experienced different
levels of support through the district for our efforts.
In closing, study after study proves what educators have
long believed to be true: When a child's basic nutrition and
fitness needs are met they have the cognitive energy to learn
and achieve. Schools continue to be a core place for students
to learn and practice healthy eating habits and can also be a
primary place to gain the knowledge, motivation, and skills
children need for lifelong physical activity.
Schools are in a unique position to address children's
eating habits and be instrumental in efforts to reduce
childhood obesity because of the significant amount of time
that children spend in school and the number of children
enrolled. We are trying to make the students aware of this each
day as we promote the healthy choices and physical activity in
fun and creative ways.
I feel that on a local level we have made a real difference
in the lives of our students by making them aware that small
changes they do can be healthy. My job is to offer education to
enlighten students what small steps are possible, like drinking
1 percent milk or going for a walk with their parents after
dinner instead of sitting in front of the television. These
decisions can make a big difference in their overall health,
and therefore their life.
Thank you for allowing me to testify today, and I look
forward to your questions.
[The statement of Ms. Yargar-Reed follows:]
Prepared Statement of Deborah Yargar-Reed, Physical Education Teacher,
Biglerville Elementary School
Thank you Chairwoman McCarthy, and members of the Subcommittee, for
inviting me to testify today. I want to offer a special thank you to
Ranking Member Todd Platts, my school's local Congressman.
Across the nation, obesity is on the rise in both children and
adults, taking a toll on our quality of life. The prevalence of obesity
among children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 28 years,
going from 6.5% in 1980 to over 17.0% in 2008.
Obesity is the result of caloric imbalance (too few calories
expended for the amount of calories consumed). Obese youth are more
likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, bone and joint
problems, sleep apnea, social/psychological problems and lower academic
achievements.
More time in front of the televisionand computer screens and less
at play, coupled with increased calorie intake, are packing the pounds
on today's youth. In the Upper Adams School District wewanted to meet
this challenge head on and therefore we have come up with various
strategies and programs to implement new ideas of physical activity and
nutrition into our student's daily routine.
The Upper Adams School District is located inrural South Central
Pennsylvania, and covers a geographical area of 90 square miles. The
approximate population of the area is 10,000 residents. The size of the
school district itself is 1,729 students which encompasses 5 schools (3
elementary, 1 middle school and a high school). Each year the Body Mass
Index (BMI) is measured of each student within the district. I would
like to share the statistics for the past 2 school years.
In the 2008-2009 school year there were 891 elementary students
enrolled:
26 students had a BMI under the 5th percentile;
123 students had a BMI in the 85th--95th percentile,
putting them in the ``at risk'' category; and
208 students had a BMI greater than the 95th percentile,
putting them in the ``obese'' category.
In the 2007-2008 school year there were 898 elementary students
enrolled:
18 students had a BMI under the 5th percentile;
163 students had a BMI in the 85th--95th percentile,
``putting them in the ``at risk'' category; and
202 students had a BMI greater than the 95th percentile,
putting them in the ``obese'' category.
In 2006, I attended the Wellness Institute at Dixon University.
Requirements for the class included the creation and implementation of
a wellness project within the Upper Adams School District. This policy
became our district's Local Wellness Plan, as required by the 2004
Child Nutrition Act, and we began implementation of the plan in the
2006-2007 school year.
Activities, which have developed out of the Wellness plan, include
a monthly event which engages the students and staff in physical
activity and or nutrition. A few of these events include:
Jump rope for heart--thirty minutes of ``physical activity'' daily.
An event which raises money for the American Heart Association.
Tailgate activity--to promote school spirit, physical activity and
nutrition for all students to participate, followed by a healthy snack
of fruits and vegetables. The tailgate activity takes place in
September. All students are encouraged to wear their favorite football
jersey on tailgate day. The students engage in football related
physical activities such as passing a football, running and carrying a
football, and punting a football. After all the students have played
their football challenges they are then given healthy snacks which
consists of fresh fruits (grapes, watermelon, apples, oranges,
cantaloupe) and vegetables (carrots, cucumbers, broccoli) as well as
100% fruit juice. Parents provide the healthy snack for the students to
enjoy.
Apple crunch--schools across Pennsylvania celebrate the Great
American Apple Crunch. This event was organizedby the Pennsylvania
Advocates for Nutrition andActivity (PANA). (PANA works with schools to
help promote healthy eating and physical activity to prevent child
obesity.) At this event, local fruit farmers in the area donate apples.
Go Greens--a statewide celebration that takes place in March that
helps schools and communities focus on the important role of vegetables
as part of a healthy diet. The event is held in partnership with the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and it supports National
Nutrition Month and the consumption of Pennsylvania produce.
All Children Exercise Simultaneously (ACES)--by gubernatorial
proclamation, the first Wednesday in May is the state's annual Keystone
Healthy Zone Event Day, which also coincides with the worldwide
observance of ACES day to promote good fitness habits.
Family Fitness--a monthly evening program designed for students and
their families to come out and exercise and participate in scheduled
activities and share a healthy snack.
Market Basket of the Month--brings together the school cafeteria,
classrooms, home and community through a strategic effort to promote
healthy habits for students. Objectives include knowledge and
familiarity with a variety of fruits and vegetables as well as
participation in daily physical activity. Wellspan provides this
opportunity for our school district. We are currently one of six school
districtsacross PA who have been selected to implement this Market
Basket program.
A Family in Motion--This project is part of our Growing Healthy
Kids School Partnership with Wellspan Health. The healthy Fitness Zone
School Partnership programs are designedto help young children get into
the habit of being physically active. The program features a backpack
filed with fun activity ideas and equipment for family activity time
and help children develop motor skills. The backpack is taken home with
each student for a one week timeframe.
Eat Smart Play Hard--an educational two-part series program
presented by Wellspan. The ABC's of healthy eating (Adjust portion
size,Be a labelreader and Choose more healthful foods). Participants
help to prepare a sampling of healthy foods. Bring your sneakers--we
are on the move is part two of the series. These are creative ways to
decrease screen time andget the family moving.
Culminating activity--the students went on a fieldtrip to the local
grocery store.This helpedsupport nutrition principles that focus on the
importance of making sensible food choices to build a healthy body.
Students also became familiar with how to read a food label.
Taste Test--a favorite event for the students is food sampling,
better known as the polite bite. Students are encouraged to try a new
fruit or vegetable and then asked to go home and share that experience
with their family. Examples of fruits sampled include: kiwi, star
fruit, mango, pomegranate just to name a few.
I am pleased to share with you changes that have been implemented
in our school cafeteria, asa result of the collaborative nature of the
Local Wellness Plan. Rather than serve whole milk students may choose
from 1% or fat free milk. White bread is something of the past. When
sandwiches are served either on bread or rolls they are now multi-grain
or wheat. A change has been made from potato chips to the ``baked
chip.'' Rather than serve students baked goods daily the cafeteria has
done away with that and serves fresh fruit or canned fruit. Baked goods
are now a ``WHOA'' food in our cafeterias. Snacks that the students may
purchase after finishing their lunch are healthier selections as well.
The cafeteria has posted the following signs around for the
students to have a better understanding of ``GO,'' ``SLOW,'' and
``WHOA'' foods. Teaching the students this concept will help them make
smarter food choices:
``GO'' foods are those that can be eaten almost anytime;
``SLOW'' foods are those that should only be eaten
sometimes (at most only several times a week); and
``WHOA'' foods are those that should only be eaten once in
a while or on special occasions.
Classroom teachers are no longer using candy as a positive
reinforcement for those students who finish their homework or complete
various tasks that are asked of the students. Rather a reward these
days may be extra recess time.
Our District has created a School Health Advisory Council
networking forum to oversee the wellness policy implementation. Our
committee consists of school administrators, physical education
teachers, health teachers, family & consumer science teacher, school
nurse, food service personnel, parents, guidance counselors, and
representatives from Wellspan Organization (our local health care
system).
Initially the Advisory Council was created to advise and recommend
nutrition standards to the school board andadministrators through the
wellness policy. The first task of the council was to create a draft
wellness policy. Now that the draft was accepted, the Advisory Council
makes recommendations on activities to the school board, such as the
PANA activities that individual schools participate in. The Advisory
Council also reviews potential school fundraisers to ensure they fall
within the wellness plan. The Advisory Council meets 4 or 5 times each
year. To date, therecommendations of the Advisory Council have been
received withmixed reactions. We have experienced different levels of
support throughout the district for our efforts to focus on nutrition
and physical activity.
The Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity, known as
PANA or more recently as NRG Balance, sponsors an annual campaign to
recognize Pennsylvania schools and community centers for their work and
commitment to ``make healthyeasy'' for the youth they serve. The
campaign provides resources, materials, and training to help schools
improve nutrition and physical activity. BiglervilleElementary School
has been a member of this campaign since the2004-2005 school year.
Biglerville has taken part in anumber of PANA activities through this
campaign, including the Annual Webcast, Great Apple Crunch, and Go for
the Greens.
There are also professional development opportunities for the staff
to participate in, including attending the Keystone Health Promotion
Conference as well as the yearly Pennsylvania State Association of
Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (PSAHPERD) conference.
New ideas and insight is gained to share with the staff and students in
the area of Health and Wellness at these conferences.
Change is not always a welcome initiative. However, in the Upper
Adams School District we feel that if we keep plugging away and making
contacts with various local personnel, and resources such as Wellspan,
Penn State Extension offices, just to name a few, and continue to find
funding through grant writing opportunities, we can maintain the path
to wellness for our students. Of course, we have experienced some
negative response to the suggestion of ``healthier'' choices, but that
is becoming a thing of the past as we continue to promote the healthy
choices.
In closing, studyafterstudyproves what educators have long believed
to be true: when a child's basic nutritional and fitness needs are met,
they have the cognitive energy to learn and achieve. Schools continue
to be a core place for students to learn and practice healthy eating
habits, and can also be a primary place to gain the knowledge,
motivation, and skills children need for lifelong physical activity.
Schools are in a unique position to address children's eating habits
and be instrumental in efforts to reduce childhood obesity because of
the significant amount of time that children spend in school and the
number of children enrolled in schools. Schools can impact children's
eating habits through the foods offered, classroom health education
presented and the messages students receive throughout the school
environment. It is imperative students learn to live a healthy
lifestyle.
We are trying to make the students aware of this each day as we
promote the healthy choices and physical activity in fun and creative
ways. I feel that on a local level we have made a real difference in
the lives of our students by making them aware that there are small
changes they can do to be healthy. My job is to offereducation to
enlighten students that small steps are possible, like drinking 1% milk
or going for a walk with their parents after dinner instead ofsitting
in front of the television. These decisions can make a big difference
in their overall health and, therefore, their life.
Thank you for allowing me to testify today and I look forward to
your questions.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you.
Tony?
Could you put your mic on?
STATEMENT OF ANTHONY GERACI, DIRECTOR, FOOD AND NUTRITION
SERVICES, BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Mr. Geraci. Thank you for having me here, and thank you
Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts, and all of the
committee members. My name is Tony Geraci. I am a chef. I am
the food service director for the Baltimore City public schools
system, and I am here because my clients demand it. These are
my clients behind me.
I work for 85,000 kids, and these kids are sort of a
living, breathing testimony of like how a schoolhouse rock
program works. These guys used the U.S. Constitution to create
a cafeteria bill of rights that simply demanded to have real
food, fresh food every day.
They went to the school board. They brought the then
current school lunches and said, ``You guys eat this,'' and
nobody would eat them. And then they said, ``So what is your
expectation, then, that we should eat this stuff?''
And because of that, the catalyst of change happened. I was
hired; I was brought in. And so, you know, the real story here
is our kids, all right?
So we spend $174 billion, with a ``b,'' dollars every year
fighting type two diabetes in this country. And I grew up in a
generation where polio just about ravaged this planet, and we
as a planet decided that we were going to do something about it
and we changed that, and we just about eradicated that.
One in every three children born after the year 2000 will
contract this disease. One in two African American or children
of color will contract this disease. This is preventable. This
is something that we can change.
And the good news is, we can change this. We will change
this. And in Baltimore we are doing some very specific things
to change this.
So we took this 33-acre abandoned orphanage that was
founded by a slave in the 1880s and we recreated it as the
Great Kids Farm. As a chef I know the single most powerful tool
to teach children about food is to reconnect them with food,
all right? So if you give a kid an opportunity to plant a seed
and they walk down this long line of tomatoes that they have
just grown and they pluck a cherry tomato from a vine that is
still warm from the summer sun and they plop that in their
mouth and that flavor explodes, that is a moment you can't
teach in a book; that is a moment that can only be experienced.
And it is also a moment that forever changes the way a kid
looks at food. It is no longer a consumptive thing, all right?
They learn so much more. They learn about stewardship; they
learn about the connection of who we are to the earth, to the
planet, to the place that we live, you know? And so our Great
Kids Farm has been this great transformation tool to help our
kids to understand about healthy eating.
We have done some pretty innovative things this year in our
menu mix. We are the first school district in the nation to
offer meatless Mondays, right? You know, and look, I have an
unholy love of pork, all right? So this is not about denying
people meat. This is about beginning a conversation about
alternatives, beginning a conversation about change, and also
having an opportunity to expose our kids to different cultures.
Look, you know, there are great, you know, plant-based
menus in all cultures, you know? Meat was a luxury not too long
ago, you know? So the kids like it. It has been a lot of fun.
We also recognize that breakfast is the single most
important meal of the day, and as a chef I go to my pantry and
I open the doors of my pantry and I look inside, and what I
have are birds, right? I have ravens and orioles, right?
So there is no sort of secret that, like, I created these
Baltimore Raven purple breakfast boxes and, you know, Baltimore
Orioles orange breakfast boxes and inside we have the lowest-
sugar cereals on the market, 100 percent juice, and a whole
grain snack that is free of dyes and preservatives. And we do
this--it is shelf-stable--and we do this so our kids can have
grab-and-go breakfasts, breakfast in the classroom, second
chance breakfast, you know?
I also, on the inside of these boxes, one in 20 of these
boxes has a little secret code and there is a prize, right? And
I know it is real Pavlovian the way we did this thing, because
in the beginning they were tearing open the boxes looking for
the prize, and those prizes are, you know, mp3 players, DVDs,
Ravens tickets, Orioles tickets, roller skating passes,
whatever swag I could pull together to make this thing work.
But we went from serving 8,500 breakfasts a day to 35,000
breakfasts a day in less than 60 days. It worked, all right?
And, you know, and our kids have been, you know, powerful
agents of change in Baltimore, and I am not going to take much
more time. I want to pass it over to Alison, and she has a very
compelling story and I am glad that we are here, but I think we
all need to keep the focus on what this is about.
It is about them, you know? This is an amazing place. I am
a first-generation American, and it is because of opportunity
that we can provide with great nutrition for our kids that this
country will continue to be great.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Geraci follows:]
Prepared Statement of Anthony Geraci, Director of Food and Nutrition
Services, Baltimore City Public Schools
Good morning, Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts and
members of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities. My
name is Tony Geraci, and I am Director of Food and Nutrition Services
for Baltimore City Public Schools.
So why are we here today?
We are here because as we speak America's youth are on a collision
course with poor health and chronic disease, the prevalence of which
our country has never seen before.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in
2007, 13 percent of high school students were obese and by 2006, the
rate of obesity among 6- to 11-year-olds was at 17 percent. As a
result, incidence of type 2 diabetes--a disease closely linked with
obesity--is on the rise, requiring more than $174 billion worth of
treatment each year. If current trends continue, every third child born
in the year 2000 will develop diabetes within his or her lifetime. This
is not what we want for our kids, but the good news is that, as a
nation, we can fix this, and we are fixing this in Baltimore.
In Baltimore--a city where 37 percent of public high school
students are overweight or at risk of becoming so and 27.5 percent of
children live below the poverty line--many of our public school
students hated the meals our school system served.
A small group of students, some of them in the room right now,
insisted on something better. Inspired by the U.S. Constitution, they
worked with their social studies teacher to draft a Cafeteria Bill of
Rights, challenged our school board to eat what they were expected to
eat every day and met with the head of our school system to talk about
changes.
Their work led to much of the following.
We now provide fresh fruit with every lunch we serve. All over
Baltimore, students are learning what an actual, locally grown peach
tastes like instead of some synthesized peach flavoring. And as of this
school year all of the peaches, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers--all of
our fruits and vegetables--come from Maryland farms. We were
intentional in getting as much of our food as possible from local
sources because we believe that the local tax dollars that support our
school system should circulate and multiply among those very taxpayers.
This also means that fewer ingredients make long trips--at great cost
to the environment and those tax dollars--over hundreds of miles.
Due in part to those cost savings our more than 80,000 students now
have access to fresh fruits and vegetables every school day. Last
school year we could guarantee fresh fruit just one day per week.
In 2008, we opened Great Kids Farm, a working organic farm and
education center that trains future urban farmers and informed
citizens. The site that hosts Great Kids Farm was once an abandoned
orphanage founded by a former slave. George Freeman Bragg opened the
Maryland home for Friendless Colored Children as a place of opportunity
for young black men, a place where they could learn trade skills that
would him them be self-sufficient. Over the years, it has had many
different incarnations--a segregated school, a nature center, and,
before Great Kids Farm, 33 abandoned acres. Filled with the spirit and
vision of George Bragg, community members from throughout Baltimore
felt it was important to deliver on his original promise. Our vision
was to use the farm to connect kids to the origins of food and the
resulting agriculture and hospitality jobs associated with it.
Today at Great Kids Farm, children are raising bees, goats, and
chicken; using organic farming techniques to grow tomatoes, lettuce,
greens and mushrooms; and exploring a few dozen acres of woods, streams
and trails. We welcome students on day-long field trips by the busload
and train students in-depth. Our Farm to Fork Summer Internship is an
eight-week, hands-on course, during which students learn about every
aspect of the food supply chain from cultivation to harvesting,
marketing, delivery, and, finally, cooking and presentation at premiere
local restaurants.
Long outsourced, we're quickly bringing many aspects of food
procurement, processing and distribution back in house. Thanks to a
$1.3 million gift from the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, we have a
fleet of nine refrigerated trucks and milk coolers in all of our
schools.
Taking a cue from McDonald's, we introduced not a Happy Meal box
but a Healthy Meal Box to our breakfast program: Kids rip open a
slickly designed package containing a low-sugar cereal, 100-percent
fruit juice, a carton of milk and a whole-grain, high-protein snack.
They also have a chance to meet some of their professional sports
heroes from the National Football League's Baltimore Ravens and Major
League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles. Within two months, participation
in our breakfast program increased four-fold.
We're treating kids like the savvy consumers they are with ``No
Thank You Bites,'' one-to-two-ounce servings of items we'd like to
consider incorporating into the menu. If a student likes what she
tries, great. If not, she simply says, ``No thank you.'' But everyone
who works with us to expand their palettes and their minds is rewarded
and we listen to their suggestions.
Baltimore has done all of this with a few big ideas, under severe
budget constraints, and with strong community support. But how can the
federal government help make this type of work possible nation-wide?
Congress can do so by implementing the six recommendations of the
National Farm to School Network as it considers reauthorization of
federal child nutrition programs.
1. Guarantee funding for competitive, one-time grants that will
help schools develop their own farm to cafeteria projects--menus,
procurement, and educational and promotional materials that get local
produce into schools.
2. Increase the reimbursement rate for all child nutrition programs
in line with actual costs.
3. Apply the same high nutritional standards to all foods and
beverages sold within schools, even those not covered by the United
States Department of Agriculture's school meals program.
4. Encourage purchasing of local fruits and vegetables through the
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.
5. Incorporate language changes in existing Child Nutrition
Reauthorization feeding programs to promote increased local food
purchasing.
6. Provide mandatory and consistent funding for the Team Nutrition
Network to enable a consistent and coordinated nutrition education
approach across child nutrition programs.
We need to bring America's kids back to the table, to put them back
in touch with honest-to-goodness, un-messed-around-with food; in touch
with the earth and the resources that make real food possible; with the
wonderful things their bodies can do in clean, open spaces; with each
other; and with adults--their parents, grandparents, teachers and
neighbors--because food is something that touches us all in the same
ways.
Thank you.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you, Tony.
Well, Alice, looks like it is your turn, and Tony has just
put a lot on your plate.
STATEMENT OF ALICE SHEEHAN, 8TH GRADE STUDENT, CITY NEIGHBORS
PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL
Ms. Sheehan. Thank you.
Hello, my name is Alice Sheehan and I am a spokesperson for
my school's lunch committee. Thank you for inviting us here
today, and I am delighted that I have the chance to speak up
and help improve the school in our--the food in our school
system.
I have been working to solve this problem for over 3 years.
Even before I came into the picture, however, other students
began to bring attention to the abysmal quality of Baltimore
City's pre-plated school lunches.
Together, we have worked to get rid of the overcooked,
tasteless, and just plain disgusting food in our schools.
Coming here and telling you about our experience in Baltimore
means we are on our way to getting nutritious and delicious
breakfasts and lunches for all American children.
Our story started with the endless grumbling about lunches
at school. Tired of complaints and just ready for action, our
student council and others together took samples of our
prepackaged lunch down to Baltimore City School Board to
demonstrate what it would be like to eat this every day. If
this is what they feed us, we said, they should have to eat it
too.
The board turned up its nose--no thanks. But the deed was
done. We had started acting and not just complaining.
A year later, Mr. French, my social studies teacher,
suggested starting a lunch committee that included Justus
Grier, Zachary Carter, a few others, and myself. The committee
had two goals. First, we worked out a cafeteria plan of action
and a cafeteria bill of rights. We wrote out point by point
what we needed for healthy and tasty lunches.
The bill of rights included the right to a nutritious and
delicious food for breakfast and lunch, the right to fresh
fruit and fresh vegetables every day, the right to choose more
than one main selection each day, and the right to give back
feedback and have input on the quality and selections made and
have our input be given serious consideration.
The plan of action was to put a kitchen and cooking staff
in each Baltimore City school, end pre-plated lunches, and
immediately begin surveying students on how they feel about
their cafeteria means and for the school system to use this
information in future planning and purchasing.
Second, we decided we had to know more, not just about our
school but about all of the schools. So we prepared an
experiment and invited the Baltimore Sun to observe. We made an
expedition to sample lunches. In the end we had three: one from
our school, which had only pre-plated and packaged food; one
from the Hamilton Elementary School, which had its own kitchen;
and one from a Baltimore County school, whose food came from
outside the city district altogether.
The difference was clear: Our food was by far the worst.
And no surprise that the county's food was the best--their
school system is wealthier than Baltimore City public schools.
People with more money are getting better, tastier food, and
the unfairness of this made us mad.
The Sun caught on fast. They took pictures and wrote them
up for the next week's news.
Now, with our results in had and the press on the case, we
went downtown to confront the now former director of food and
nutrition at the schools. She was hopping mad about the
article. Even so, she told us that our hands were tied and the
city was bound by its contracts. Plus, the food you eat, she
said, is both nutritious and delicious. We disagreed, and we
weren't going to take no for an answer.
So we went to the top, to Dr. Andres Alonso, the
superintendent of the Baltimore City public schools. We gave
him our cafeteria bill of rights and told him of our
expectations for a better and healthier school lunch system.
He was sympathetic with our cause and admitted how much he
disliked the prepackaged food at his own cafeteria. He said he
would do something about it and he did. The new director of
food and nutrition, Dr. Geraci, has been working hard to
improve our lunches ever since, but we think there is still
work to be done.
First, we need healthy food that kids will actually eat. If
adults won't eat it, then why should kids? Everybody deserves
to have fresh, tasty, and yummy food.
If possible, why not make it local food? Why buy apples
from Washington State when you can get them right here in
Maryland at a cheaper price? We should think about our meals
not as nutritional packages but as food that people like and
want to eat, with fresh ingredients and tasting like it should.
Second, our experiment showed that at the present, school
districts with the most underserved kids get the worst food.
This is unfair. The same kids who are already struggling to eat
good meals at home are getting inferior meals at school.
All kids need to eat well, if they live in Baltimore City
or Baltimore County. The city of Baltimore may always be poorer
than the county, but the city could spend its money better on
healthier and tastier foods rather than on expensive
prepackaged junk.
Third, waste: Right now, if you go to our cafeteria you
find in the trash can at least half the lunches are uneaten and
thrown away. What is eaten is the fresh fruit, the sweets, and
the bread. Not a good lunch nor a good use of the school's
money.
If people get free or reduced-cost lunch and just throw it
way it is just like throwing money right down the drain. Lunch
is more often an experiment--how hard are those mashed
potatoes? Did the meatloaf just move? None of this helps kids
at all.
The point is, we need to serve healthy food that kids will
eat. Why not ask kids to help plan the menus? Why not design
lunches with kids so that they eat their food every day?
I am a kid who does not buy lunch all the time, and I am
lucky to have another option. But most kids can't bring their
lunch, or if they do it is either small or not very good for
them. On days I do buy lunch and eat it all--not very common--I
am usually still hungry afterwards.
In my experience, then, school lunches are neither
delicious nor nutritious, and not even very filling. We can do
better and we should, and with the help of Congress we will.
Thank you for listening to me on behalf of the children of the
United States. Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Sheehan follows:]
Prepared Statement of Alice Sheehan, 8th Grade Student, Baltimore City
Public Schools
Hello, My name is Alice Sheehan and I am the spokesperson for my
school's lunch committee. Thank you for inviting us here today. I am
delighted that I have the chance to speak up and help improve the food
in our school systems. I have been working to solve this problem for
over 3 years. Even before I came into the picture, other students began
to bring attention to the abysmal quality of Baltimore City's pre-
plated, school lunches. Together we have worked to get rid of the
overcooked, tasteless, and just plain disgusting food in our schools.
Coming here and telling you about our experience in Baltimore means
that we are on our way to guaranteeing nutritious and delicious
breakfasts and lunches for all American children.
Our story started with the endless grumbling about lunches at
school. Tired of the complaints and ready for action, our student
council and others together took samples of our prepackaged lunch down
to the Baltimore City School Board to demonstrate what it would be like
to eat this every day. If that is what they feed us, we said, they
should have to eat it too. The Board turned up its nose: no thanks! But
the deed was done: we had started acting and not just complaining.
A year later, Mr. French, my Social Studies teacher, suggested
starting a lunch committee that included Justus Grier, Zachary Carter,
a few others, and myself. The committee had two goals. First, we worked
out a Cafeteria Plan of Action and a Cafeteria Bill of Rights. We wrote
out point by point what we needed for tasty and healthy lunches. The
Bill of Rights included:
The right to nutritious and delicious food for breakfast
and lunch
The right to fresh fruit and fresh vegetables each day
The right to choose-more than one main selection each day
The right to give feedback and have input on the quality
and selections made and have our input be given serious consideration
The Plan of Action was to put a kitchen and cooking staff in each
Baltimore City School, end pre-plated lunches, to immediately begin
surveying students on how they feel about their cafeteria meals and for
the school system use this information in future planning and
purchasing
Second, we decided that we had to know more, not just about our
school, but ALL the schools. So we prepared an experiment, and we
invited the Baltimore Sun to observe. We made an expedition to sample
lunches. In the end, we had three: one from our school, which had only
pre-plated and packaged food; one from the Hamilton public school,
which had its own kitchen; and one from a Baltimore county school,
whose food came from outside the city district altogether. The
difference was clear: our food was by far the worst. And no surprise
that the County's food was the best: their school system is wealthier
than the Baltimore City's Public Schools. People with more money are
getting better, tastier food, and the unfairness of this made us mad.
The Sun caught on fast: they took pictures and wrote them up for the
next week's news.
With our results in hand, and the press on the case, we went
downtown to confront the (now former) director of food and nutrition at
the schools. She was hopping mad about the article. Even so, she told
us that her hands were tied and that the city was bound by its
contracts. Plus, the food you eat, she said, is both nutritious AND
delicious.
We disagreed. And we weren't going to take no for an answer.
So we went to the top, to Dr. Andres Alonso, the Superintendent of
the Baltimore City Public Schools. And we gave him our Cafeteria Bill
of Rights, and told him of our expectations for a better and healthier
school lunch system. He was sympathetic with our cause, and admitted
how much he disliked the pre-packaged food at his own cafeteria. He
said he would do something about it. And he did. The NEW director of
food and nutrition Dr. Geraci has been working hard to improve our
lunches ever since.
But we think there is still work to be done. First, we need healthy
food that kids actually will eat! If adults won't eat it, then why
should kids? Everybody deserves to have fresh, tasty and yummy food. If
possible, why not make it local food? Why buy apples from Washington
State when you can get them right here in Maryland at a cheaper price?
We should think about our meals not as nutritional packages, but as
food that people like and want to eat, with fresh ingredients and
tasting like it should.
Second, our experiment showed that, at the present, school
districts with the most underserved kids get the worst food. This is
unfair. The same kids who already are struggling to eat good meals at
home, are getting inferior meals at school. ALL kids need to eat well,
if they live in Baltimore City or in Baltimore County. The city of
Baltimore may always be poorer than the county, but the city could
spend its money better, on healthier and tastier foods, rather than on
expensive prepackaged junk.
Third, waste. Right now, if you go to our cafeteria, you find in
the trash can, at least half of the lunches are uneaten and thrown
away. What is eaten, is the fresh fruit, the sweets, and the bread. Not
a good lunch. Nor a good use of the school's money! If people get free
or reduced-cost lunch and just throw it away, it is just like throwing
money right down the drain. Lunch is more often an experiment--how hard
are those mashed potatoes? Did the meatloaf just move? None of this
helps kids at all. The point is, that we need to serve healthy food
that kids will eat. Why not ask kids to help plan the menus? Why not
design lunches with kids, so that they eat their food every day?
I am a kid who does not buy lunch all that often, and I am lucky to
have another option. But most kids can't bring their lunch, or if they
do it is either small or not very good for them. On days when I do buy
lunch and eat it all (not very common!) I am usually still hungry
afterwards. In my experience, then, school lunches are neither
delicious nor nutritious, and not even very filling. We can do better.
And we should. And with the help of the Congress, we will. Thank you
for listening to me on behalf of the children of the United States.
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you.
I want to thank everybody. The testimony obviously shows
that everyone in front of us cares a great deal about our
children and the future of this nation. We need to bring the
context of food--healthy food for our children because they are
our future, and if we don't take care of the children now,
where are we going to be 20, 30 years from now? And that is
what hopefully this committee will be able to make a big
difference in the children's lives.
Alice, I want to thank you for taking that up, and
certainly, Tony, for you listening to them due to their
persistence. And having, you know--one of the things that we
didn't really talk about a lot, which I hopefully get into down
the road on another hearing, is how important physical
education is with the food. One can't go with the other, or it
shouldn't be without the other. Our children are not getting
the exercise that they need.
So my question to be, especially since I know that we are
going to be starting a program at the Westbury schools, and
Tony, you have already designed the boxes, and Alice, hopefully
did you have any input into the boxes? So I would like to ask
all of you on the grab-and-go lunches that are going to be out
there, and what makes the decisions on what goes into those
boxes? And Alice, I guess you would be the person that would
say how does it taste.
So I will start with Mary.
Ms. Lagnado. The pilot program we started was prepackaged
from a vendor that we purchased it, but in looking over the
shelf life was not feasible for us to keep--it didn't keep, and
the taste was not there. So we have decided that we will do our
own. So moving forward, we are going to box our own or bag it,
and we will cook the food in our cafeterias and we will design
it based on what we have said we want to do: nutritious and
healthy food choices.
And we will go back to the committee and to the students
and get their feedback. Like any other vendor would, you have
to get your customer feedback, and that will determine. But we
want to do our own because we have our own food service program
and our own employees, which makes it feasible for us to be
able to control what we do.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Which is great. It reminds me--you go
to a restaurant. If the food is terrible you don't go back or
you send it back----
Ms. Lagnado. Right----
Chairwoman McCarthy. And that is what Alice has done with
herself and her friends.
Tony, tell me a little bit more about the packages that
came up. We heard about the, you know, the----
Mr. Geraci. We used the National School Lunch guidelines
for content, so we followed all of the USDA regs to make sure
that we had all of the, you know, appropriate nutrient content
when we created the boxes.
In our kitchens that we can cook in we cook and serve hot
meals. Many of our schools in Baltimore City don't have
kitchens because they have been gutted over the years, and we
are in the process of trying to build a central kitchen
operation where we bring in, like, all of our local fresh
fruits and vegetables.
Baltimore City now only purchases its fruits and vegetables
from Maryland farmers. We put out an RFP last year calling for
only Maryland-grown products to be purchased by--it doesn't
make sense to buy peaches packed in a can of corn syrup that
traveled 2,200 miles to get to you for 14 cents a portion when
I can buy a Maryland peach for 8 cents, you know?
So what we would ask is that the government give us an
opportunity to be better stewards of the money that we get so
we can do more local purchasing so we can build better
programs.
Chairwoman McCarthy. That is the question I wanted to ask
you: With the regulations that have come here with programs
that you are all trying to do into your schools, maybe we
should even look at, you know, how do we give more flexibility
to all of you so that you can be able to give these lunches
that--and breakfasts they need?
Alice, I just want to hear your input as far as your
committee of your friends and colleagues in school. How do you
come up to the point of where you consider something good to
eat?
Ms. Sheehan. Many times our school has both the breakfast
boxes and the hot lunch, as we do not have a kitchen that
works. Most people get the hot lunch or they get both, and
sometimes that is what they need to get through till lunch.
The boxes are usually very good. They fill you up and hold
you over and keep you calm, I guess, till lunch time comes.
Chairwoman McCarthy. One of the things that--my time is
almost up--that you had brought up, Alice, was also that
underserved schools unfortunately have probably the worst menus
going.
Ms. Sheehan. Yes.
Chairwoman McCarthy. We have found that to be extremely
true. One of the things a lot of people don't know, those that
are getting the free breakfasts and lunches--those schools--
they don't have students that are actually able to pay. So the
schools that have more, maybe, middle-or upper-income families,
you know, half the students are helping to support to have
breakfasts and lunches to the students. That is unfair.
You know, as far as I am concerned, if we are going to make
children healthier we should actually really look a little bit
deeper on how we make sure all of our children get the right
nutrition.
With that, Mr. Platts?
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Again, my thanks to each of you for your testimony, and
great cross-section of witnesses.
Ms. Yargar-Reed, I wanted to start with you. In your
testimony you talked about the various different programs, and
one that caught my attention was the family fitness program. As
one who very much believes in--for long-term success and
permanent success it really needs to be a family buy-in and not
just what the child eats at school, but then how that
translates to at home.
I am drinking my water today because 5 years ago there
would have been a Mountain Dew sitting here, and sitting at the
dinner table my then 5-year-old--I drank about a case of soda a
week, and I commute from my district and use that as my excuse
to have the caffeine--and sitting at the dinner table one
night, my 5-year-old saw my glass of soda, and they get sweets
but to this day they don't get soda, at now 10 and 13, and my
5-year-old said, ``Well, Daddy, if it is so bad for me why do
you drink so much of it?'' Needless to say, I don't drink soda
anymore.
And so that buy-in is so important and it sounds like that
is part of your program is that family engagement, and that
being one example. So could you expand on how that works and
the success, you know, how it is going?
Ms. Yargar-Reed. Certainly. The activities that we do in
school are just for the students, and hopefully I would like
them to carry it over to their home life, but I don't know that
to be truly happening. But if I actually invite the families to
come in and do activities along with their children--a physical
activity--then I know by the number of people that are coming
and actually coming back and getting a higher attendance at my
monthly events, then I know that more people are buying into it
and then actually, hopefully, making the healthier choices at
home.
So it is an event that takes place once a month and I
encourage any of the students that are in the school to come
along with their parents. And it is an hour program, and within
the hour we do some type of physical activity.
I have a theme for each different evening program. For
example, when the weather is warmer we are outside. We did disc
golf, and we have also done basketball activities. I set up
different stations around in the gymnasium and they rotate
amongst the various stations.
We have done volleyball activities, volleyball games. We do
just simple movement and tag games. The school that I teach at
is a kindergarten through third grade building, so any of the
students are encouraged to come, and a lot of times they have
older siblings that might be in another elementary in our
district, which is a four through six building, so it is neat
to see the older siblings actually coming along with the
younger siblings and the parents to the evening activities.
The number of people that normally come out on a monthly
basis are somewhere between 30 to 60, so I feel that--and it
seems like it is growing. So----
Mr. Platts. I guess the engagement with the family in
addition to the fitness night, in the sense of the meals
themselves, is there parent participation in the wellness--in
the committee and kind of what you do as far as your policies?
Ms. Yargar-Reed. Yes, there are. Actually, on the committee
we do have parents, as many as can come. Because our meetings
are during the school day, so some of them might be a working
parent but they are always free to send e-mails of any
comments, concerns, any feedback that they would like to be
brought up to the committee. But we do have parent involvement
on our advisory board for that, yes.
Mr. Platts. Great. Thank you.
Mr. De Burgh, one of the things that caught my attention
with your testimony was the breadth of the type of schools--I
think you said 37,000, maybe, and then 21. How does it work
with especially the small schools--my district is mainly
suburban and rural--in your smaller districts and how they
participate? And I guess if you can walk me through how a
school participates through the co-op and how that would be
different than if they were in a more traditional sense
purchasing their food service?
Mr. De Burgh. Every school district, regardless of size,
they get about 20 percent of their food money from the
commodity program, but they buy the other 80 percent from
somebody. So the key is, how can I get the somebody to deliver
the 20 percent, because it is extra money to that person, and
it makes it seamless to the school district.
We do all of the contractual obligations for meeting all
the federal and state law on purchasing. Because we are so big
the manufacturer says, ``I don't need an estimate of 20,000
cases because I know you are already going to buy 200,000
cases.'' So a small school district gets to piggyback on the
fact that there is a--you know, we are three times the size of
L.A. Unified, and everybody says, ``Well, L.A. Unified,'' you
know, it is a question of volume making the small school
district functional and then having that function follow the
commercial outline so that it is seamless.
Whoever they get their normal food from, the commodity food
not only comes from them but comes from the same format. You
don't have a different chicken nugget; you don't have a
different sliced apple. It is the same stuff.
Mr. Platts. How big a region--geographic region--are your
schools?
Mr. De Burgh. All the state of California, all the state of
Michigan, all the state of Ohio.
Mr. Platts. Okay. So it is not just the West? You are
great----
Mr. De Burgh. And one of the things Alice said was more
than one choice. That is the key to our program.
A school district that doesn't offer choice, that is the
only place the child ever goes, they don't get a choice. You
can't get a Happy Meal unless you answer seven questions. You
can't, okay?
So there are some kids that don't like pepperoni pizza. You
have got to offer a choice so that there is a meal that every
child wants to eat. And I am serious, the kids should ask to
eat at school when they are asked where they want to go.
Mr. Platts. Yes. Well, and your comment about children, if
you give them an apple, how they respond versus sliced apple.
Having participated in the Great Apple Crunch Program in my
district where I go in and serve in the cafeteria and see the
packaged, sliced apples being devoured, but if you sat the
apple out there whole not nearly as many take it.
Mr. De Burgh. Using the commodity program, we delivered
sliced apples at a cheaper price than the district could buy
whole apples. That is how good it is.
Mr. Platts. Yes. Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you.
Ms. Chu?
Ms. Chu. Mr. Sharp, I was so happy to hear of the success
of California's direct certification program, this 37 percent
increase in student enrollment in the school lunch program
based on having an automatic entry into the school lunch
program based on the food stamp SNAP and TANF records.
Since California has already gone through this direct
certification process, can you tell us more about how long the
process took, how much did it cost, how much money a school
district and the State Education Department would need to
implement these practices? Or did it save money? Did it save
administrative costs?
You also said that California made improvements over time,
and I know this has been a 4-year process thus far, so can you
expand on all that?
Mr. Sharp. Thanks, Congresswoman Chu, for the question. I
will try and be brief and succinct and can provide further
information in writing in follow-up.
After Congress passed the law establishing an expectation
for increased direct certification in 2004 we offered a state
law in 2005--or sponsored a state law--to require the state to
develop the database which was built with about $200,000 in
federal funds that were used to create a match, a computer
patch, in effect, in between the food stamp database and the
Department of Education database. It costs very little to
operation on an ongoing basis because technology is so
sophisticated today.
The savings and the benefits are really along this side of
the table. At school sites where there is not an obligation
anymore to process those applications, to handle the paper
tickets, and to do all the administrative work, that money can
be plowed into better nutrition.
So the up front costs were very minimal, paid for by a
small federal grant which, I should point out, you all have
expanded in the Conference Agreement of this year's USDA budget
for 2010, you have proposed to put in $22 million in grants to
other states to make these systems the minimum so that these
innovations you are hearing today become the national model.
Ms. Chu. And then you also said that California's
performance improved over time?
Mr. Sharp. The accuracy of this process depends on a number
of variables. There are Jose Louis Fernandez Martinez, Jose
Louis Fernandez Rivera. There are lots of variations on the
names, and the ability of the software to more precisely put
that together and get the right student certified for free
meals has been an ongoing process and we expect improvements.
But the big leap forward will occur when you all permit
California and the rest of the nation to use the data that is
in the Medicaid database, where, I proposed earlier, there are
another 1.3 million California students' names ready to be put
into free school meals without the red tape.
Ms. Chu. In fact, I wanted to ask about that. Currently,
federal law does not allow us to use Medicaid and S-CHIP data
so it would require a change in the law, of course. But would
we be able to get these data systems to work well together? And
also, about the databases that are now being developed for No
Child Left Behind, would that be a possibility?
Mr. Sharp. Yes. In California the food stamp and Medicaid
databases are housed within the same computer mainframe system,
and so the matching process will be reasonably painless. I
can't speak for the other jurisdictions and their databases,
but by and large that is a trend in social services, is
integrating the database functions to save money in a time of
fiscal crisis. So the intermediate step to do that involves a
change in federal law more than it involves any other change at
a state of federal level, in terms of the technology.
But regarding, you know, the outcome of this and what is
needed to make it happen, you do need to direct USDA to work
with the Department of Education at a federal level to figure
out if some of this stuff could occur nationally, at a simple,
automatic level, and if the right technical assistance could be
provided to the state so they could learn from the experience
of California and other innovators in this area. Within the
existing system, there is a wide range of success rates. Some
states are below 60 percent, some states are at 100. And so you
all ought to take those innovations and establish them as the
minimum for----
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you, Ms. Chu.
We have been notified that there is going to be a vote
coming up and there will be five votes, which means that we
will probably be down there for a good hour. So what I am going
to do is, instead of having 5 minutes there will be 3 minutes
so hopefully the rest of our colleagues can get a chance to ask
a question.
We don't like to hang you all up here for an hour while we
are down there voting.
So, Mr. Thompson?
Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
And as a former school board member, I appreciate the
innovations of the programs I am hearing about, and frankly,
the importance of nutrition, the lessons of that.
And first question, Ms. Lagnado, the--congratulations on
your program and the nutrition that you are delivering. And I
wanted to kind of take it that next step, taking it home. Very
impressed with the concept that you can work this out for the
parents, that is just so important. And I think that is the end
game, where for the future, that we really need to emphasize.
So I was curious--any reflection--does your learning
curriculum at any point within the school district address
responsible parenting and preparing students for future roles
as parents, emphasizing the--you know, assuring that, you know,
parents are prepared--those future parents are prepared in
terms of providing--meeting the nutritional needs of their
children, then reinforcing the importance of breakfast, that
type of thing?
Ms. Lagnado. Well, at the lower grades what we hope is that
educating them on healthy choices will follow through when they
become parents. We know, because of the population we serve,
that we only control the school day. What happens away from
home is another story.
So our hope is that as we introduce certain vegetables and
fruits and broccolis, when they go with their parents either to
the bodegas or the supermarkets, they will ask their parents to
buy those vegetables. We have workshops not only--we have
multiple workshops for our parents. We have them in multi-
language translators, and during the school day with our
physical education department and our nurses we have immense
curriculum education on healthy eating and what it means to
have good meals and good choices.
So on both levels not only are we educating the child, but
we also focus, through our PTAs and through our parent
workshops and staff development, we educate--we concentrate on
educating the parents as well to what is good eating and what
they should be looking for as far as healthy choices.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you.
Mr. Geraci----
Chairwoman McCarthy. You know, I am sorry. That was
actually 3 minutes.
Mr. Thompson. Okay. I am just watching the lights.
Chairwoman McCarthy. We can't--the timers we have only have
5; you can't bring it down to 3. So we are watching it.
Mr. Tonko?
Mr. Tonko. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The panelists are great to be here and offer all this
information. And Alice, thank you for providing a student's
perspective.
Let me ask this question: Other than a richer reimbursement
for the food supplies that are necessary for the program, if
there were grant concepts developed, what would be the most
creative use of those grant dollars? What is not being done or
what is being done now that could be done better to achieve the
kind of results that you would like? If you had those added
dollars, what would you do?
Mr. Geraci. If we had access to those grant dollars we
would reinvest in our infrastructure so that we could start
cooking our meals again, you know, on site. As an example, in
Maryland, look, there are more chickens than people in that
state. But, like my colleague said, I am buying chickens from
Arkansas.
So to me it makes sense to build a central kitchen
operation in the city that I live that then could provide
additional jobs, green jobs, vocational training in the
culinary arts to prepare the food to feed our kids.
Mr. Tonko. Anthony, does that exist--is that a need that
exists primarily for urban cores, do you think, or is that
across the----
Mr. Geraci. No, across the country, I think. You know, any
time that you have, like, a strong infrastructure in place you
lower your costs. I mean, if I am paying a processor, you know,
$2 million or $3 million a year out of my budget to turn
chicken into nuggets when I could turn chicken into roasted
chicken in pesto--makes a little more sense, you know?
Mr. Tonko. Anyone else, in that regard?
Mr. Sharp. Well, just regarding the facilities gap, it is
estimated that in Los Angeles alone there is $600 million of
unfunded facilities needs--everything from hand-washing sinks
to actual chairs so that all 3,000 students at an overcrowded
high school can eat. The backlog is tremendous. In the
Conference Agreement for USDA's 2010 budget you all have made a
small down payment towards that unfunded problem.
Mr. Tonko. Anyone else? Okay----
Mr. De Burgh. You need not only to provide chicken in pesto
sauce, but you also need to provide the chicken nuggets. You
need to provide what the child wants and make it healthy. Hide
the non-fried chicken nugget in whole wheat batter. Pavel has
got a pizza that is 30 percent calories from fat and less than
10 percent calories from saturated fat, whole wheat bread;
people eat it.
So the key to me is, children are sophisticated, and
provide healthy meals that are also attractive. If you just
provide healthy meals that aren't attractive, as you said, they
are just going to wind up in the trash can.
Mr. Tonko. Okay.
Then, if I have a little time left--I don't know if I do--
--
Chairwoman McCarthy. Fourteen seconds. [Laughter.]
Mr. Tonko. It was nice hearing from all of you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. I just want to say at this particular
point that in the appropriations there will be $25 million to
help purchase equipment to store, prepare, and serve healthy
food, so that should help out a little bit.
Mr. Roe?
Mr. Roe. Thanks very much.
Very quickly, and Ms. Reed, our data reflected yours, and I
am from a rural area in Tennessee, on the children who 49
percent were at risk for obesity or obese, 1 percent
underweight, and it was almost identical to what your data was.
And we started about 5 or 6 years ago an Up and At 'Em program
with nutrition and exercise, and without the exercise you are
not going to make it. And you have to have both.
We have a Turkey Trot every Thanksgiving. I thought about
100 people would show up; 1,200 showed up the first year, 2,000
the next year. For the school that shows up with the most kids
they get $1,000 to put into their school.
So we have done some innovative things there, and just to
give you an idea, of 150-calorie cola that you drink, so that
Congressman Platts was talking about, if you do exactly the
same activity in 1 year you will gain about 12 pounds just with
that 150 extra calories a day.
And also to tell you how important it is to teach these
young people how to be healthy to begin with. Korean War
veterans were autopsied, and these were young men that were
killed during the Korean War, and they already had a
significant amount of coronary artery disease. So you need to
start that at a very young age to prevent these kinds of
problems happening.
And just a statement, Alice, I am a doctor, and we would
have these drug detail guys come by and bring a fiber biscuit.
And I would take it home and give it to my beagle dog, and if
he wouldn't eat it, I wouldn't prescribe it to my patients. So
I understand where you are coming from: If you can't stomach
the food you are not going to eat it.
And the sad part is, 6 months ago I had been in
Afghanistan, and 16 million people in that country live on $1 a
day. They would love to have what we throw out. So we need not
to do that.
I think the other point that I want to commend you all on
is purchasing local. I think that is--we are encouraging people
around the country to do that. I think that is a tremendous
thing to do. And I will stop and let you have any comments.
That is just some statements that I had very quickly.
Thank you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. You left them speechless.
Mr. Polis?
Mr. Polis. Thank you, Madam Chair.
First, thank you again, all, for your commitment in being
here today. My question is for Deborah Yargar-Reed and Mary
Lagnado, with regard to wellness policies.
Your districts have developed and implemented very
successful wellness policies that have led to significant
changes in the school environment by promoting healthier
choices, physical activity, and nutrition education.
However, a recent report by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation found that the quality of such policies--and I have
some experience from Colorado where we worked on requiring
wellness policies in the districts--but what we found and what
this study bore out is that there is really a wide disparity of
the quality of the policies. Many are undeveloped and
fragmented, others are well-intended on paper but lack adequate
implementation and monitoring.
The Robert Wood Johnson report also found that many
policies are weak overall. For example, half of them didn't
even have goals for nutrition education; 70 percent did not
require nutritional information for school meals; three out of
four neither restricted the marketing of unhealthy foods and
beverages nor promoted healthy foods and beverages.
So my question is, can you share with us your experience on
these, and how we can help districts strengthen and improve
their local wellness policies and ensure their implementation
and evaluation are a high priority?
Ms. Lagnado. Well, I would like to say that the wellness
policy is an ongoing entity. We look at it with the nutrition
committee on a regular basis to see how it can be improved and
whether we are adhering to it, which is very hard to control
when sometimes you have fundraisers that include foods that are
not permissible, and that was a challenge with the policy in
our school district--it was educating everyone in the school
community that certain things were not allowed with the policy.
What we did is try to--the first year, the first time that
it was enacted, we actually made it as flexible as we could so
that we could educate everyone on it and what would be needed.
We recently had an audit from the State Comptrollers Office in
the state of New York, and they were very pleased with our in-
depth policy and what we had done because we have made
significant changes.
And one of the most significant changes, I think, that we
have made and we are very proud as a result of the policy, is
that we have birthday of the month, where our food cafeterias
actually cook--make the cupcakes, once a month, for each school
to celebrate the birthdays, and they are made with whole wheat
flour. What this has done is, on the early grade levels the
elementary principals are ecstatically happy because for now,
it takes less instructional time to celebrate a birthday that
took 2 hours, now it is done in the cafeteria once a month. And
also, we are controlling what the child eats.
And this came as a result of the wellness policy. So again,
we are very pleased that this came into being, and we are
looking at ongoing to refine it.
Mr. Polis. Thank you.
I yield back.
Chairwoman McCarthy. Thank you.
I am so glad you brought up about the cupcakes, because--
no, in some newspapers, you know, they are advertising that
schools are now saying to the parents, ``You can't bring in
cupcakes or cookies, and whatever.'' There is a slight uproar,
but it is actually educating their parents.
I want to say, I have a closing statement, but because we
have only about 2 minutes to get down to vote, I want to thank
everybody. This is very, very informative of all the
information that you have given us to hear what is going on,
the innovative programs, seeing what we can do to have it a
little bit more flexible so you can do the best that you can.
And hopefully we are on to a good start on giving good
nutrition to all our children in this country.
And I thank all of you.
And Alice, I thank you for coming down here and starting
something in your school, because as we said, this is all about
the children--totally about the children.
So with that, I will----
Mr. Platts. Madam Chair, if I could just add----
Chairwoman McCarthy. Absolutely.
Mr. Platts [continuing]. My words of thanks. We do a lot of
hearings. Some are more productive or informative than others,
and each of you have been extremely informative and has, I
guess I would say, given a lot of food for thought, and, you
know, we will take to heart your suggestions and experiences
you have.
And Madam Chair, thanks for your holding this very
important hearing, because as you said, it is about doing right
for our nation's children. Thank you.
Chairwoman McCarthy. And I thank my ranking member for
working with us.
I want to mention that there has been a great deal of
interest in this hearing and we have received many requests to
submit written testimony from other organizations, so I will
have, from the New York State Nutrition Consortium, that I
would like to submit for the record. Without objection, so
ordered.
[The information follows:]
Prepared Statement of the Nutrition Consortium of New York State
The Nutrition Consortium of NYS is a statewide, non-profit, anti-
hunger organization dedicated to alleviating hunger in New York State
through increasing access to and participation in the federal nutrition
assistance programs. The three programs we primarily focus on are the
Food Stamp Program (FSP), Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), and
School Breakfast Program (SBP). We commend the House Subcommittee for
Healthy Families and Communities, under the leadership of Chairwoman
Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, for holding this hearing on innovative
strategies to ensure children have access to school meals.
To improve the educational achievement and health of children
across NYS and the rest of the country, and to help achieve President
Obama's commitment to ending childhood hunger by 2015, it is imperative
that the upcoming Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act provide
grant funding for high-need schools to implement universal (served to
all students at no-charge) breakfast programs that incorporate in-
classroom breakfast or other alternative service methods.
Throughout NYS, almost 90% of low-income children who qualify to
eat free or reduced-price school meals eat school lunch through the
National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Unfortunately in NYS,
participation in the SBP is much lower than in the NSLP. Only 37% of
low-income children eating school lunch are also eating school
breakfast. In Nassau County, only 29% of low-income children eating
school lunch are also eating school breakfast.
Why is this? Research proves that students do not eat school
breakfast due to persistent ``access barriers'' which prevent them from
participating. Short breakfast periods, buses that arrive to school
late, pressure to get to class on time, lack of awareness, and stigma
all discourage children from eating school breakfast. These barriers
are all associated with the traditional model of serving breakfast in
the cafeteria before the school day begins.
With breakfast in the classroom, and other alternative breakfast
service models, schools move breakfast out of the cafeteria and
incorporate the meal as part of the school day, making it easily
available to all students. However, despite the tremendous success of
universal in-classroom breakfast programs, only a small number of
schools utilize these methods. Based on 8+ years of working to convince
schools to adopt in-classroom and other alternative service methods,
the Nutrition Consortium of NYS found that the most effective way to
get schools to do so is by offering start-up funding.
Many school food service directors are interested in switching from
the traditional cafeteria model to innovative school breakfast service
methods, but lack support from school administrators, teachers, and
custodial staff to implement this change. The Nutrition Consortium of
NYS found that offering a small amount of start-up funding ($5,000-
$10,000) is sufficient to garner the support of school administrators
for implementing a classroom breakfast program, and allows the schools
to pay for start-up costs such as equipment and labor.
During the 2003-2004 school year, the Nutrition Consortium of NYS
administered the Academics and Breakfast Connection (ABC) Pilot, which
provided grant funding for 20 upstate schools to start universal
breakfast in the classroom programs. Westbury School District in
Congresswoman McCarthy's district in Nassau County, one of the featured
speakers at today's hearing, was part of this pilot. Funding for the
Academics and Breakfast Connection Pilot was secured by the Nutrition
Consortium of NYS from the Indirect Vitamins Purchasers Antitrust
Litigation Settlement administered by the New York State Attorney
General. Urban, suburban, and rural schools of varying sizes and socio-
economic characteristics received grant money to implement breakfast in
the classroom. As part of project, schools reported SBP participation
rates and various physical, social, and academic indicators before and
after the pilot was implemented. The Harvard Medical School analyzed
results and the Nutrition Consortium of NYS published these
tremendously positive findings in a report entitled, ``Academics and
Breakfast Connection Pilot''.
In all pilot schools, SBP participation more than doubled.
Participation from low-income students increased from 34% to 58% (as
compared to the school year prior to implementation). There were also
notable differences in other indicators: tardiness and absenteeism
decreased; disciplinary office referrals decreased; and visits to the
school nurse decreased. An overwhelming majority of school principals
and teachers surveyed agreed that classroom breakfast made an important
contribution to the educational process.
In addition, school faculty perceptions about breakfast in the
classroom changed. Faculty and staff were initially concerned about the
time and clean-up involved with classroom breakfast. Before the pilot
began, 58% of teachers reported they were hesitant about the program.
By the end of the school year, 85% of the teachers surveyed felt that
classroom breakfast made a positive impact in the classroom. Similarly,
50% of custodial staff members were initially reluctant to switch to
classroom breakfast, but by the end of the school year, 77% supported
the program.
Due to the tremendous success of the ABC Pilot, in 2007 the
Attorney General used some of its remaining money from the initial
settlement to award the Nutrition Consortium of NYS additional funding
for universal classroom breakfast start-up grants. The Nutrition
Consortium of NYS received more than 100 letters of intent for the
start-up grants, which were for amounts of up to $5,000 per school.
More than 30 completed applications were submitted, but due to limited
money available, the Nutrition Consortium of NYS awarded funds to nine
schools.
At the present time, there is no funding available for schools in
NYS to start universal classroom breakfast programs. The Nutrition
Consortium of NYS believes that the Child Nutrition and WIC
Reauthorization Act should include funding for this purpose, since
there is a documented interest and a record of success. If funding was
available for universal classroom breakfast start-up grants, there
would be many schools across NYS that would apply and switch to this
style of breakfast service. Start-up grants would thereby increase the
number of low-income children participating in the SBP, improve
educational and health outcomes in school children, and reduce the
prevalence of childhood hunger.
The benefits of children receiving morning nutrition through the
SBP are well-documented. In November 2008, the Sodexho Foundation
summarized recent peer-reviewed and/or scientific literature published
in refereed journals about the benefits of school breakfast. The
Sodexho report categorized the benefits of the SBP into three major
areas: cognitive and academic benefits; health benefits; and behavioral
and psychosocial benefits.
According to the report, in terms of cognitive and academic
benefits, school breakfast participation resulted in improved
concentration, alertness, and energy in children. The SBP was also
associated with improved overall academic performance including higher
math, reading, and standardized test scores. In regard to health
benefits, school breakfast elicited better overall diet and eating
habits, improved nutritional status, and reduced illness in children.
In addition, children who ate school breakfast displayed improved
psychosocial wellbeing, better disciplinary and social behavior, as
well as reduced aggression and incidence of school suspension.
School breakfast participation not only promotes positive
indicators in child well-being and contributes to a more positive
school environment, but it also helps parents and adult caregivers.
Especially in these economic times, breakfast at school provides
parents/adult caregivers an affordable option for feeding their
children in the morning. With busy morning schedules, parents/adult
caregivers working non-traditional hours, and children not being hungry
early in the morning, school breakfast is an opportunity for children
to get morning nutrition.
In addition, the SBP has significant financial implications for
school districts in NYS and Nassau County. Since a majority of the SBP
is federally-funded, each school breakfast served draws down federal
funding. Ultimately, the more children who eat breakfast at school, the
more federal dollars enter NYS. According to projections from the
Nutrition Consortium of NYS, if 60% of NYS' low-income children eating
school lunch also ate school breakfast rather than the current 37%, NYS
would receive an additional $53.4 million in federal funding each
school year. Further, if 60% of Nassau County's low-income children
eating school lunch also ate school breakfast (instead of the current
29%), Nassau County would draw down an additional $2.2 million in
federal funding.
Educational and financial benefits aside, increasing access to the
SBP through expanding in-classroom breakfast programs is critical to
ending childhood hunger in this country. We heard an incredible example
of this from a food service director in upstate New York, who began a
classroom breakfast program in the 2007-2008 school year through the
start-up grant funding. Like many school districts, there was some
initial resistance from teachers in this particular school about
switching from cafeteria breakfast to classroom breakfast. One day,
this particular food service director received a message from a
teacher. The note said, ``Thank you for this program. At first, I
didn't think it was necessary. I was concerned about the time it would
take from teaching. This Monday, I had a student come up to me after
breakfast and say, `I'm so glad I got to eat breakfast today! I didn't
have anything to eat all weekend.' I now understand how crucial the
classroom breakfast program is to my students. I never would have
realized this student was hungry and not getting fed at home, and I am
sure there are so many others out there just like him.''
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act provides tremendous
opportunity to strengthen the SBP and ensure children throughout the
United States and NYS have access to morning nutrition to grow, learn,
and play. In addition to providing funds for schools to implement in-
classroom universal breakfast programs, the Nutrition Consortium of NYS
also recommends that Reauthorization include the following provisions
related to school meals: increase meal reimbursement levels, fund SBP
outreach and promotion; eliminate the reduced-price category for school
meals; and eliminate the letter method as an acceptable means of direct
certification for school meals.
To view the Nutrition Consortium of NYS' Academics and Breakfast
Connection (ABC) Pilot Report, please go to: http://
www.nutritionconsortium.org/childnutrition/documents/abcfinal.pdf
For the Nutrition Consortium of NYS' most recent report on the
School Breakfast Program in NYS, please go to: http://
www.nutritionconsortium.org/childnutrition/documents/
20072008ShinewithSBReport.pdf
For the Nutrition Consortium of NYS' new report on Direct
Certification for School Meals in NYS, please go to: http://
www.nutritionconsortium.org/childnutrition/documents/
DirectCertificationNYS09.pdf
______
Chairwoman McCarthy. We also have several--expecting
several other groups submitting testimony.
As previously so ordered, members will have 14 days to
submit additional materials for the hearing record. Any member
who wishes to submit follow-up questions in writing to the
witnesses should coordinate with the majority staff within the
requested time.
Without objection, this hearing is adjourned, and thank you
very much.
[The statement of Ms. Shea-Porter follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Carol Shea-Porter, a Representative in
Congress From the State of New Hampshire
Thank you, Chairwoman McCarthy, for holding this hearing, and thank
you to all of the witnesses for taking the time to come testify this
morning. Our child nutrition programs play an important role in our
schools. Without free or reduced meals, some children would go without
breakfast or lunch. We all know that it's just harder to concentrate
when you are hungry. This is especially true for children in the
classroom.
While these programs have been a huge success, there is much room
for improvement. I am pleased that today we have the opportunity to
hear about innovative approaches that have been taken across the
country to improve both the access and quality of our school nutrition
programs. This insight will prove helpful as we begin looking at the
upcoming reauthorization.
In particular, these nutrition programs provide a unique
opportunity to shape the way our young people make their meal choices.
With obesity rates on the rise, we owe it to our children to not only
provide them with fresh, healthy meals, but to empower them to make
healthy meal choices when the time comes for them to choose or prepare
their own meals. To this end, I applaud efforts to provide nutritional
education to our students.
I am a proud cosponsor of the Healthy Food Choices for Kids Act,
legislation introduced by my friend and colleague, Congressman Braley.
This bill would establish a pilot program that would involve posting
the nutritional information of the school meals provided, and
developing a nutritional awareness program that would correspond with
the labeling. Providing nutritional information is essential, but
explaining to our school children what this information means is also
essential if we are to empower our youth with the tools to apply this
information to their own personal meal choices.
I look forward to continuing our discussion of child nutrition
programs and the various approaches that can be taken to expand access
and quality.
______
[The statement of Dr. Gene R. Carter follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Gene R. Carter, Executive Director/CEO, ASCD
Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts, and Honorable Members
of the Subcommittee: Thank you for the opportunity to share ASCD's
ideas on innovative approaches for dealing with the issue of child
nutrition and wellness. My name is Dr. Gene Carter, and I am Executive
Director and CEO of ASCD.
Founded in 1943, ASCD is an educational leadership organization
dedicated to advancing best practices and policies for the success of
each learner. Our 175,000 members are professional educators from all
levels and subject areas--superintendents, supervisors, principals,
teachers, professors of education, and school board members. Our
nonprofit, nonpartisan membership association provides expert and
innovative solutions in professional development, capacity building,
and educational leadership essential to the way educators learn, teach,
and lead. Because we represent a broad spectrum of educators, we are
able to focus on policies and professional practice within the context:
``Is it good for the children?''
Educating the Whole Child
Since its inception, ASCD has built on a core set of values and
beliefs in support of the whole child. We believe student success is
dependent on academic knowledge, physical and emotional health,
engagement, and school and community support. We advocate for sound
education policies and best practices to ensure that each child is
healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Specifically, that
means:
Each student enters school healthy and learns about and
practices a healthy lifestyle. Schools and communities create an
environment that promotes the learning and practice of healthy
lifestyles, collaborating to increase access to health care for
children and their families.
Each student learns in an intellectually challenging
environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and
adults. Schools and communities consistently assess comprehensive
safety issues to foster effective conditions for learning. Each child
has the opportunity to access a challenging curriculum.
Each student is actively engaged in learning and is
connected to the school and broader community. Students who are engaged
and connected to their schools demonstrate increased academic
achievement, attendance rates, and participation in activities.
Each student has access to personalized learning and to
qualified, caring adults. Schools and communities connect students with
caring adults. These positive relationships reinforce academic
achievement and social, civic, ethical, and emotional development.
Each graduate is prepared for success in college or
further study and for employment in a global environment. Students
engage in a broad spectrum of activities in and out of the classroom.
Districts and communities work together to provide meaningful learning
experiences and opportunities to demonstrate achievement.
Data and Research on Child Health and Wellness
There are a number of studies focused on the issues of child health
and wellness.
``Healthy eating contributes to overall healthy growth and
development, including healthy bones, skin, and energy levels; and a
lowered risk of dental caries, eating disorders, constipation,
malnutrition, and iron deficiency anemia.''--U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2005). Dietary
guidelines for Americans, 6th Ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office.
``Research suggests that not having breakfast can affect
children's intellectual performance.''--Pollitt, E, & Matthews, R.
(1998.) Breakfast and cognition: an integrative summary. American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 67(suppl): 804S-813S.
``The percentage of young people who eat breakfast
decreases with age; while 92% of children ages 6--11 eat breakfast,
only 77% of adolescents ages 12--19 eat breakfast.''--National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of
Adolescent and School Health. (2008). Nutrition and the health of young
people. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/nutrition/
facts.htm
``Hunger and food insufficiency in children are associated with
poor behavioral and academic functioning.''--Alaimo, K, Olson, C.M., &
Frongillo, E.A. (2001). ``Food insufficiency and American school-aged
children's cognitive, academic and psychosocial developments.''
Pediatrics, 108(1): 44--53.--Kleinman, R. E., et al. (1998). ``Hunger
in children in the United States: Potential behavioral and emotional
correlates.'' Pediatrics, 101(1998): 1--6.
``From 2002 to 2008, the percentage of schools in which students
could not purchase candy or salty snacks increased in 37 of 40 states.
Among the 31 states with at least 3 years of weighted data during
2002--2008, a significant linear increase in the percentage of
secondary schools in which students could not purchase candy and salty
snacks was detected in all states except Nebraska (Table 1). A
significant quadratic trend also was detected in nine of these 31
states. The quadratic trends indicated that, except in Washington, the
rate of increase was greatest from 2006 to 2008 and from 2004 to 2008.
Among the 34 states with weighted data for both 2006 and 2008, the
median percentage of schools in which students could not purchase candy
or salty snacks increased from 45.7% in 2006 to 63.5% in 2008 (Table
1).''--Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009, October 9).
Availability of less nutritious snack foods and beverages in secondary
schools--Selected states, 2002--2008. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/
mm5839a4.htm
``Compared with 2006, in 2008 the percentage of secondary
schools in which students could not purchase soda pop was significantly
higher in all 34 states, and the percentage of schools in which
students could not purchase sports drinks was significantly higher in
23 states (Table 2). * * * The median percentage of schools in which
students could not purchase soda pop increased from 37.8% in 2006 to
62.9% in 2008, and the median percentage of schools in which students
could not purchase sports drinks increased from 28.4% in 2006 to 43.7%
in 2008.''--Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009, October
9). Availability of less nutritious snack foods and beverages in
secondary schools--Selected states, 2002--2008. Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/
mm5839a4.htm
ASCD's Approach to Child Health and Wellness
ASCD believes that a coordinated, comprehensive approach is the
best means by which to achieve positive results for child nutrition and
wellness. Schools should be encouraged to use, and incentives should be
made available for the use of, approaches that includes the interaction
and coordination of staff responsible for health education, health
services, and nutrition services, at a minimum. Students and parents
need to be involved and community organizations and businesses should
also play a role. By using a comprehensive approach, opportunities to
address a wider variety of related issues such as nutrition, physical
education and activity and social-emotional health are increased. Doing
so also decreases the chances of children falling through the cracks or
somehow being overlooked for programs and services for which they would
otherwise be eligible but of which they or their families may not be
aware.
Take, for example, the issue of providing school breakfast or
lunch. An administrator in New Mexico tells the story of a high school
senior in his very small school. The school changed its practice
regarding certifying eligibility for free and reduced-price meals
qualification. The student told the administrator that prior to this
change, she had often been without food for days. The student was
unaware that she might have qualified for free or reduced-price meals,
and her parents did not complete the application. Although it is a
small school, the administrators had no knowledge of the young woman's
dire circumstances. The student now receives two meals a day at
school--frequently the only food she eats during the week. As is the
case in many other parts of the country, there are no social services
programs located nearby nor is there a local grocery store. Providing
school meals on a presumption of eligibility reduces the possibility
that students will go hungry.
School nutrition is one part--albeit an important one--of educating
the whole child. Schools should be places where students can learn
about and practice healthy lifestyles. Nutrition education is
necessary, but it should be within the context of health education that
meets the national health education standards (revised in 2007 by the
Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards and available at
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/sher/standards/index.htm). The school
environment must be one that supports the practice that is taught.
Policies need to be in place that support the ability of students and
staff to easily make healthy choices. Foods sold outside of the
cafeteria, such as those found in student stores and a la carte lines,
and those offered outside of the traditional school day, such as those
offered through school fundraisers or made available at sporting and
extracurricular events, should be part of this effort to support the
practice of good nutrition. These offerings should not include food
choices that compete with the cafeteria nor should they be in
opposition to the messages that students receive in class. Nutrition
messages throughout the school building and grounds (whether conveyed
actively or passively) should be consistent and have as their ultimate
goal improving the nutrition and wellness of the children and adults in
the school and community at large.
ASCD's Healthy School Communities Initiative
Created in 2006, ASCD's Healthy School Communities effort (HSC) is
an integral part of ASCD's Whole Child Initiative: a multiyear plan to
shift public dialogue about education from an academic focus to a whole
child approach that encompasses all factors required for successful
student outcomes. As a part of this mission, the Healthy School
Communities effort serves as a community-building resource for schools
and communities that work together to create healthy environments that
support learning and teaching. It also provides a space for networking
and sharing of resources, ideas, and practices that encourage the
ongoing promotion of a coordinated approach to school health
programming and policy within school communities.
HSC is built upon seven tenets:
Demonstrate the belief that successful learners are
emotionally and physically healthy, knowledgeable, motivated, and
engaged;
Demonstrate best practices in leadership and instruction
across the school;
Create and sustain strong collaborations between the
school and community institutions;
Use evidence-based systems and policies to support the
physical and emotional well-being of students and staff;
Provide an environment in which students can practice what
they learn about making healthy decisions and staff can practice and
model healthy behaviors;
Use data to continuously improve; and
Network with other school communities to share best
practices.
Eleven sites were chosen from nearly 300 applicants to participate
in a two-year pilot program. Each pilot site received a $10,000 grant
and technical assistance. The goal was to create healthy school
environments with each of the pilot schools working closely with their
community to face the unique challenges presented by each school
setting. The results were as follows:
Barclay Elementary/Middle School (Baltimore, MD):
Developed an on-site dental clinic and a therapeutic truancy program
addressing the underlying causes of attendance problems. They also have
a strong after-school program, which is credited as one of the reasons
for their increases in academic achievement.
Boston Arts Academy (Boston, MA): Created a strong student
support team that focuses on the emotional and cognitive well-being of
students. Community partnerships help the school provide a range of
programs for the students, and visiting artists act as role models as
well as teachers.
Des Moines Municipal Schools (Des Moines, NM): Provides
physical, dental, and mental health care for students and staff, as
well as to the surrounding communities. To compensate for the fact that
students have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, ``the
fruit wizard'' delivers a different fruit or vegetable daily. In 2008,
in an effort to ``promote physical activity, provide nutritious foods
and encourage family involvement in the health and education of their
children,'' the New Mexico Department of Education began using the
Healthy School Communities Healthy School Report Card in 67 schools
across the state, including all Santa Fe public schools.
Hills Elementary School (Hills, IA): Has a large
population of students who live in an impoverished trailer court. The
school started a community center at the trailer court that offers a
monthly dinner program that provides opportunity for parents, teachers,
and students to work together on developing study and life skills.
Hills also has mental health promotion programs and focuses on reducing
barriers to learning, such as truancy.
T.C. Howe Academy (Indianapolis, IN): Has the Learning
Well Clinic, a collaborative with the Community Health Network of
Indianapolis. A nurse practitioner oversees the operation of the
clinic, which is available to students with parental consent. The
school also established a FAST Club (Fitness, Academics, Success
Together) as a unique way to encourage healthy habits such as proper
exercise and nutrition.
Orange County School District (Hillsborough, NC): Has been
working to systemically implement an evidence-based, coordinated
approach to school health. Thirteen school sites have completed the
Healthy School Report Card, and the school superintendent meets
regularly with a core group of colleagues to determine how best to
strengthen health services.
Pottstown School District (Pottstown, PA): Has a strong
relationship with the Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation. The
district collaborates with community-based organizations that share the
common goal of keeping students healthy and promoting effective
learning.
ASCD's Recommendations
ASCD submits the following recommendations for your review:
1. The dietary guidelines governing school meals need to be updated
to reflect current science and childhood obesity trends.
2. Rules governing school meal programs should be applicable to all
foods served on campus throughout the school day.
3. Congress must take steps to increase schools' access to healthy,
nutritious foods. In rural and urban centers, food-service staffs are
challenged both by cost and access. The kids in these schools often
have less general access to fresh fruits and vegetables outside of
school. Schools need the ability to access these products in a way that
is not cost prohibitive. At one HSC site, the fruit and vegetable
program receives support through the school-based health center in
recognition of the connection between mental health and healthy eating.
4. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act should support a
holistic approach to addressing the needs of the whole child. We as a
nation must begin to focus on ensuring that each child has the
necessary means for being healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and
challenged. Economics should not be the key factor in determining
whether a child in a low-income area has a healthy, nutritious school
breakfast, lunch, or snack. For many of our children, school is their
only source of nutritious food. By turning our focus toward ensuring
that children have access to healthy foods and by providing support for
evidence-based policies and practices that support the physical and
mental health of students across the country, we can impact learning
and reduce the incidence of undernourished and overweight kids.
Conclusion
ASCD is a resource on issues surrounding child nutrition and
wellness as well as overall efforts to support the whole child. We look
forward to working with members of Congress on this and other issues
with the ultimate goal of doing what's best for children.
______
[A submission from Ms. Clarke follows:]
Prepared Statement of Lorna Donatone, Market President,
Sodexo School Services, Sodexo, Inc.
Chairwoman McCarthy and distinguished committee members my name is
Lorna Donatone and I am Market President of Sodexo Schools Services. I
am based in our U.S. Headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to provide input
on innovative practices adopted by Sodexo to improve child nutrition. I
am pleased to describe for the committee examples of programs that
Sodexo has found successful in increasing the consumption of healthy
and nutritious meals by students.
Sodexo is the leading provider of integrated food and facility
management services in the United States with roughly 120,000 employees
in 6,000 locations across the U.S. We employ approximately 180
dietitians and medical center employees at 5 hospitals in Brooklyn's
11th Congressional District who work to provide food services for both
children and adults. We also provide wholesome meals that meet or
exceed USDA nutrition guidelines to K-12 public and private schools in
upstate and western New York. Through our School Services Division, we
serve meals to children in over 470 school districts throughout the
country, ranging from big city systems like Atlanta to small rural
systems. Sodexo is committed to delivering effective programs that help
students, teachers, parents and employees understand nutritional
concepts and allow them to make informed decisions that support a
healthy lifestyle. Experience has shown us that persuading children to
eat more nutritiously is an evolving process that requires new and
creative methods that make healthy foods more acceptable to children.
Permit me to outline several specific parts of the Sodexo approach
which we have found to be especially effective.
Access to high quality foods
We have found that many children who qualify for free and reduced
price meals fail to avail themselves of such services for a variety of
reasons including failure to complete the application, social stigma
associated with school meals or, in the case of breakfast, because of
extenuating factors that impact the childs ability to be in school in a
timely fashion. Sodexo supports school districts by encouraging
families to complete and submit the meal benefit application.
Completing the application is the first step to ensuring all students
have the opportunity to enjoy healthy meals everyday, followed by
developing new, creative solutions and opportunities for students to
access meals. For example, a General Manager in California ran into
some resistance when she planned breakfast service--timing issue around
when students arrive and when class needs to begin. Her solution was to
institute a second-chance breakfast during morning recess. She serves
breakfast from kiosks on the playground (cereal, muffins, yogurt,
graham crackers, fresh fruit, juice, milk). The majority of the
students she serves are eligible for free and reduced-price school
meals, and often do not have access to food at home in the morning. Her
efforts have increased breakfast participation by 70 percent. The
principal was pleased and the teachers say students are more attentive
and better prepared to learn.
Creating pleasurable food experiences
Our goal is to provide children with healthy foods that they enjoy
eating. In order to meet the desires and needs of students, Sodexo has
a team that monitors student insights and trends, as well as reviews
and evaluates evolving studies on student nutrition. We have discovered
that children tend to eat with their eyes first, so the food we serve
must be colorful, visually appealing and familiar. Sodexo has been
working closely with its vendor-partners to source food that meets high
nutritional standards while also being attractive to kids--both in
flavor and visual appeal.
For example, in a school district in Hopewell Valley, the block
shaped wax-coated milk cartons that traditionally have brought milk to
schoolchildren have been replaced with eye-catching, pear-shaped,
recyclable plastic bottles that feature tasty low fat milk in regular,
low-fat chocolate and strawberry flavors. In addition, the school
provides a number of milk-based promotional items such as magnet,
buttons, rubber wrist band and the like. In other school settings, milk
machines have been moved to high traffic areas and the distinctive
``Got Milk'' posters are used to attract student attention. In all
cases, we are pleased to report that milk consumption has increased and
recent studies support the fact that offering a variety of milk choices
sustains student consumption of milk. In a recent study, when flavored
milks were removed from schools, there was an observed reduction in
milk purchase consumption for all grades (K-12). This reduction ranged
from 37 percent in high school to 62 percent in the lower elementary
school grades. This reinforces the fact that milk needs creative
packaging and variety so that students benefit from the additional
calcium and vitamin D afforded by milk.
In addition to the examples provided above, we also have increased
healthy eating through the utilization of age appropriate educational
programs. At the K-12 level, Lift-Off is Sodexo's school ambassador and
this character is presented in a variety of fun and engaging ways to
entice students to aim for better nutrition and physical activity. For
instance, we partnered with Los Angeles Martha Montoya, the cartoonist
behind the nationally-syndicated ``Los Kitos'' comic strip. The
partnership brought popular ``Los Kitos'' cartoon characters like
Pikito, Mima and Solito to elementary school cafeterias across the
United States with a monthly comic strip. Sodexo's nutrition mascot
Lift-Off, joined the ``Los Kitos'' characters in entertaining and
educating students through comic strips about topics like the value of
a good breakfast and daily exercise. To help celebrate the nationwide
program launch, Lift-Off was joined by Montoya and Mima (the mouse)
from ``Los Kitos'' to bring a special health and nutrition message to
students at William McKinley Elementary in the Burbank Unified School
District. During this visit, Montoya taught students to draw cartoons
during a classroom educational session while a registered dietitian
also taught students about healthy eating and then lead the class
through an engaging activity session.
For middle school, we offer Performance Zone and at the high school
level we offer Balance Mind Body and Soul. Both programs highlight
nutritional content of meals, offer monthly promotional messages
through brochures, posters and signage, and offer vibrant, age-
appropriate signage to motivate students to make healthier lifestyle
choices. Students have access to a variety of wholesome menu choices
with pizza made from whole grains and low-fat cheese, and fresh salads
and deli options.
Building coalitions
We have also discovered that it is essential to involve varied
members of the educational community is influencing the food choices of
children. In many instances, we have formed Nutrition Teams, comprised
of parents, teachers, food service directors, dietitians, students,
school nurses and physical education teachers to develop healthy meals
and to coordinate and integrate educational messages at home, in the
classroom and on the playground. Our chefs and registered dietitians
have been invited into classrooms to teach nutrition and culinary
skills, and have offered after-school programs, such as cooking
demonstrations on creating healthier meals at home. Other school
communities have begun to build school gardening programs with the
assistance of Sodexo managers and chefs. Registered dietitians and
school managers work with parents and nursing staff to ensure students
with diabetes and food allergies are properly accommodated. And most
recently, we have signed a very important agreement with the Alliance
for A Healthier Generation to ensure beverages and snacks served to
students in all grade levels meet specific nutritional criteria. By
serving snacks and beverages with a healthier nutrient profile in age-
appropriate portion sizes we hope to visually educate students, parents
and teachers about better food choices.
Madam Chairwoman and members of this distinguished committee, these
are brief highlights of the many ways in which we strive to increase
student access and interest in school meals, and thus, promote
consumption of a healthier diet. Thank you for allowing us this
opportunity to share our story.
______
[Whereupon, at 11:31 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]