to approximately 50,000 valued children. most of our children eat breakfast and lunch with us and also eat supper with in our facilities. our work makes a critical difference in their lives in our community. this was the first school district in the country to make breakfast universally available supported by several studies and direct correlation between eating breakfast and improving academic performance. our lunch program provides free, fresh cooked hot food to all students in all schools including healthy a ray of fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, lean protein, 100% food uses and low-fat milk and we offer free healthy numerous at risk students throughout our after-school programs. in detroit, we warmly welcome the higher nutrition standards of the 2010 free kids act. the legislation resulting legislations prompt us to institute changes by making a

positive difference in the life of our children and employees. the nutrition standards provide a framework to support several other provisions of legislation including additional training opportunities for school nutrition, staff and equipment and purchasing systems. it is the improved nutrition standards that allow us to introduce new a clement in our kitchens, produce watchers, salary, warming station the new norm. the nutrition standards are a force of positive change in detroit, a force we see as a necessity for the lifelong health and well-being of our children and in addition, food distribution partners are fighting products we need to provide our children the quality food they need and deserve. we have found food manufacturers become determined for nutrition standards, food companies are developing the innovation, designed to help us meet the new regulatory requirements.

all of this change is enabling us to be more effectively serving nutritional needs of our children. we are 80% of our children in detroit eligible for preschool meals. i discovered through my career, hundred and malnutrition is not confined in children from low-income families. and what about the end of the cul-de-sac and urban streetcorners. and this allows high public schools like those in our district to provide breakfast and lunch for all students free of charge increasing efficiency and reducing hunger. the program delivers after we reduce administrative burden resulting from elimination of paper applications. the increased meal participation rates allow me to capture economies of scale while savings generated by the elimination of paper application and providing meals to children who might

otherwise pay. improving financial stability of our school programs. as you are likely aware and more schools are participating. the work of you and your committee make a critical positive difference in the lives of tens of thousands of the 4 children each and every day. each of you have known, each of you know better than i that the usda funding is all about improving economic conditions in america. one of my greatest joys and another direct benefit of the improved nutrition standards have been increasing purchasing of michigan grown farm products. as vice chair of the local food association nation's only trade association for buyers and sellers. and sustainably produce local foods. particularly i do my part to increase, market share of local

farmers. our school program reduced partnerships, regional farmers generating healthy returns for them and our children, and fresh asparagus and some teenagers and they like it and increasing children's exposure to fresh foods and lifelong habits that reduce improved health and quality in life. and we had additional benefit with education opportunities in the cafeteria, the classroom business by participating farmers and school garden opportunities. in 2012 the community partners initiated an effort to break gardens at the school after what the district expanding access to real-life laboratories to teach children about eating, nutrition and increasing school access to fresh fruits and vegetables. each features objects built by children and have an access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

the learning centers become learning centers, we have 71 schools with gardens, two acre farm and we have reestablished in nationally known farm. we are also engaged in development which is repurchasing of a close a 38 year high school site. in conclusion our recent shared progress towards improving school nutrition programs represent the solid value for opposition for the nation. as leaders responsible to chill and whether we are parents in congress, school nutrition knit officials and food business or usda we must steal our focus away from the frost of changed to emphasize the progress enabled by these new policies. institutional change is difficult in seems near impossible. it takes time and short-term discomfort. we have investments, prompted by

improved nutrition school nutrition standards have and will continue to generate valuable returns. after short-term pains short-term pains pale in comparison to benefit from reforms, highly desirable and attainable. change takes time. nine of ten school districts are in compliance with the standards. we are making it work and work well in detroit. i am fully confident that all the districts will do the same. thank you again for the opportunity to be with you. debbie stabenow, as the michigan resident i want to say how proud and grateful we are for your leadership on this issue. >> thank you, we are pleased to have you here today. mr. clements, we welcome you as well. >> thank you very much. debbie stabenow, thad cochran, members of the committee, my name is scott clements, director of the office of healthy schools

and child nutrition for education on behalf of superintendent right, the state board of education and many thousands of food service workers in mississippi. thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today. i have a few mississippi initiatives i would like to discuss. the first is a wide purchasing cooperative. the first child nutrition statewide in the country. this project began in 1992, an effort to lower costs in procurement for local school districts. the majority of school districts in mississippi have a small number of schools, mandates are relocated. the product prices and delivery fees were high due to the limited buying power of small districts. by fuelling together the buying power of every school in our state we are able to utilize the economies of scale inherent with large volume purchases allowing us to provide significant savings in participating

organizations. and related supplies in excess of $130 million per year. due to the high volume of purchases we are able to negotiate prices directly with manufacturers and able to reduce costs even further by having only delivery associated with those items. currently our cooperative has 183 organizations with almost 1,000 delivery sites. the majority of participating organizations are public-school scan and we have all the two school district in the state participating and also have a number of head starts and governmental agencies also participating in the national school lunch program. the state administrative expense funds support this program, the cooperative is self funded. we charge participants about half a penny per lunch served to pay for the staff, travel and office supplies associated with the program. our office also responsible for

ordering and distribution of $16 million of usda donated food annually. through purchasing cooperative we have a statewide delivery system in place so we are able to further reduce the cost of participating organizations by having usda food delivered by the same manufacturers. we made use of the buying power and distribution network of our cooperative to support schools that the state level. even though mississippi is the agriculture base, schools face challenges implementing the school programs. many states most abundant crops, cotton, soybeans cannot go to the cafeteria table. we have many of our most plentiful harvests during the summer season when school is not in session. to assist our mississippi farmers we work together with the department of defense and the mississippi department of

agriculture, throughout the state. and we have a million dollars worth of locally grown produce delivered to schools throughout our office. and initiative of the office was to assist schools in meeting the new sodium requirements. when first announced products did not exist to make it available for schools to meet the sodium requirements and still have a nutritious and appetizing meals to maintain participation. the buying power of our cooperative again played a role. we are able to partner with the chef from culinary institute of america and national manufacturer to provide -- they produce a new low sodium -- we have three of those available now and those are available to schools throughout the united states. we supply schools with 50 recipes 2 encourage new spice blends to reduce sodium in school meals. the last thing i would like to talk to you about is school

meals, recipes and menus since 1996 mississippi provided mississippi cycles, programs, coordinated program, sample menus and recipes that schools could meet nutrition standards, that was updated in 2005 but we found with the new healthy of hungry kids act that the system along works. the menu planning was more complex so we pulled together a task force creating a miss is the recipe for success and we have matrices, standard menus, and going out of schools we have another program available to any school in the country that would like to participate and this is in response to the conflict menu planning which sells small schools and did not have resources to implement by themselves. pardon me.

last piece of that is what power cooperative, recipe for success, we have standardized ingredients and recipes across the board for all our schools in mississippi and that has been a benefit to us when it comes to the administrative reviews which are more frequent than they used to become more complex, with half of the pieces together simplifying the process and making it possible for mississippi to make standards. thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee, i will be pleased to answer any questions or provide additional information as needed. >> thank you very much. miss bauscher, we're glad you are here. >> thank you, members of the committee. on behalf of the 55,000 members of the school nutrition association thank you for the opportunity to discuss our shared goal of strengthening america's child nutrition programs. school nutrition professionals recognize the importance of healthy school meals to the academic success of american

students. that is why we have expanded our school breakfast options to increase summer feeding sites, launch new programs and taking advantage of the new community eligibility, we worked diligently to improve the nutrition of school menus and support most of the new regulations. we are increasing the serving size and variety of fruits and vegetables we offer serving more whole grains and will limits on calories while reducing sodium. we are making healthier choices more appealing to students and steadily increasing the quantity of local food we serve. school nutrition professionals are truly committed to the healthy under free kids act and its goal of expanding access to school meals and that is why we are so concerned about the historic decline in student lunch participation. for 30 years the national school lunch program has grown steadily but according to usda under the new requirements student participation is abruptly down

in 49 states. more and the 1 million tier students choose school lunch each day even the student enrollment in participating schools increase $1.2 million last year. nationwide recognize a 15% decline in paid meal participation. if this trend continues the school cafeteria will logger be a place where all students dine and learn healthy habits to get a but rather a place where 4 students must go to get their free lunch. despite our best efforts schools have struggled with student acceptance of a new menu options. many have been challenged to find whole grain rich 40 ups, biscuits, crackers and other specialty items that appeal to students. students complain their hostiles and brads are tough or taste strange ending the diesel grains do have a different texture, appearance and flavor than students might find at home or in their favorite restaurant. food company serving schools introduce new foods that meet

and standards and student tastes and these products are not widely available or affordable especially to small and rural districts. school districts both free and reduced eligibility also face unique challenges under the standards because a meal per dissipation declines have a greater impact on their budgets. in states like colorado, minnesota, new york and illinois and schools are dropping out of the program rather than having to meet the rigid and costly requirements. most school districts rely on the national school lunch program's reimbursement and do not have the option or desire to leave the program. the school nutrition association found that in 2012-13 school year, 47% of school meal programs reported revenue declines while nine of ten reported food costs were up. with the federal reimbursement rate serving a free lunch just over $3, schools are required to serve healthy school meals for less than most people pay for their morning coffee. schools cover labor and benefits, supply, equipment and

other expenses leading to more than a dollar on the lunch tray. bands with new regulations getting more expensive, we have significant increases in prices over the last year, the reimbursement rate adjustment for the coming school year was smaller than the previous school year. in my district each half pint of milk alone will cost a nickel more in the school year exceeding the $0.04 increase in the price of breakfast. we appreciate every penny receive this adjustment comes nowhere close to covering the cost schools face now that they have the amount of fruit offered at breakfast. meanwhile now that students take a fresh vegetable with their meal with the intent to eat its or not, we watched in despair as much as costly produce ended up in the trash, $684 million per year according to cornell university researchers. as schools struggled to manage rising costs and waste, what once was a problem for meal

programs is rapidly becoming a program for school districts. we cannot carry over annual losses so school districts have to pick up the tab. financial instability in the new program can cut into district educational funds. this fall schools place more challenges if they work to meet new smart snacks in schools. many of these requirements are welcome changes, some meal programs had to strip healthy entree options from their all lockhart menus because of strict sodium limits. in closing i ask school nutrition association's 55,000 members continue to be part of the ongoing discussions as members of the committee draft the reauthorization language. thank you for inviting me and i am happy to answer any questions. >> we intend to have you involved all the way along. dr. wilson, welcome. >> madam chair, senator cochran and members of the committee, and i am dr. katie wilson, executive director of the national food service management

institute at the university of mississippi. i appreciate the opportunity to share, the past. russian director in wisconsin for 23 years, i believe they are the best safety net for our children. when a child walks through the cafeteria doors the benefit is in the form of food and a child is assured access to that food. due to the scope of responsibilities school programs should serve as learning tools, educating children went a healthy meal looks like. we operate in the education arena says will meals must be part of the process. at the country we have a serious problem with obesity. it is overwhelming to think of the health outcomes of the future yet at the same time each of us in this hearing room are struggling to balance our idea of what a school meals should consist of and under what guidance school meals should operate. the learning exchange with the

united kingdom i have come to learn school nutrition standards instituted throughout the u.k. years ago are actively progressing the health and well-being of students. they will tell you it wasn't easy and took time for students to accept some but it is in the best interests of national wallace. scotland has begun to see a decrease in dental care along with other positive outcomes. lindsey graham school food and health advisor from the u.k. is in the audience today at the churchill fellah from the winston churchill memorial trust. she can learn more details after the hearing if there is interest. the strong federal support for these programs in the united states is of interest to our colleagues in the united kingdom. one of the areas of interest to many child nutrition professionals are the numerous resources available from the national food service management institute. these resources are available free of charge to assist everyone throughout the united states and its territories involved in providing meals to children using the federal school meals program. and dedicated to assisting child

nutrition professionals and improving quality and operation of child nutrition programs. authorized by congress under section 21 of the richard russell national school lunch act it is funded by the united states department of agriculture and other outside foundations. training and assistance is available, with trainee topics from inventory control and meal pattern training available in face-to-face former. with approximately 100 trainers organized as regional trading teams throughout the u.s. the region we provide face-to-face training for over 7,000 child nutrition professionals throughout the united states and its territories in 2012-13 reporting period. i just got the numbers for this year and was over 8,000 face-to-face trainings that occurred. one specific example included the healthy cuisine kids culinary class, a two day training taught by a chef and

registered dietitian. whenever a state nutrition association or state agency requests it. in mississippi the state agency organized eight of these classes with 240 participants in the state in a two month period. in california they organize 10 of these culinary classes throughout their stay with 350 total participants all funded by outside foundations or the usda grand administered by the institute. these are hand on classes offering nutrition professionals the opportunity to learn new culinary skills or refresh the ones they already had. all other face-to-face topics are available in the same manner. all of our curriculum for these face-to-face trainings are available to download free of charge for districts to use within their own time frame inconvenience in an easy to use manner. many share training videos of are available for download in use in child care kitchens as well. these are anywhere from 6 to 20 minute videos on specific topics like cooking, dried peas and beans. we have many of these available

in online training courses, how use u.s. c foods, food safety, nor of iras and others. there are 40 topics of online courses easy to access from your computer or tablet all free of charge. such as a participants can start at their convenience answer to the point completion comes up after the participant completes the course and passes the quiz with a 70% learning rate. in 2012-13 reporting period over 33,000 participants registered and completed online courses through the institute. we are looking at exceeding this number as we compile our 2013-14 report all available free of charge. individual technical assistance is available free of charge for the state agency or regional office requesting assistance for specific districts. we hire consultants based on experts needed to go in and help the district come into compliance in whatever area we need. we worked in two district in kansas and are presently working with new york city with personal technical assistance to their

districts. cheese again all free of charge. madam chair school meals have become a focus point for many in this country. the institute and other allied organizations provide great resources for school nutrition professionals as they work to ensure high quality nutritious meals being served our school's children. although it has become more challenging to feed these consumers have depopulation it is important to realize what our job is. a child will learn lifelong eating habits during their tenure in school and in closing i would like to thank the senate for its leadership in providing this hearing and commitment to our children and child nutrition programs. i am happy to answer any questions. >> thank you very much. welcome, glad to have you. phil muir. >> thank you members of the senate committee on agriculture and nutrition and forestry. my name is philip muir, president and ceo of salt lake city. thank you for inviting me here today and calling attention to the critical issue of school

nutrition. i am passionate about making a difference in the nutrition of our school-age children. we are a food service produce distributor that provides fresh fruits and vegetables to 52 rural and urban school districts in utah, idaho and wyoming. with total enrollment of 450,000 students. we are the usda dod fresh prime vendor for schools and three in the reservations in the three states. we provide schools with fresh fruits and vegetables for their fresh fruit and vegetable program, school lunch, school breakfasts and summer feeding programs. schools are 15% of company revenue. copper canyon farms is an older member of parole act el lc which is a cooperative of 70 protist distributors across north america who leverage our purchasing power together to make the most price and effective quality assured and foods a purchases possible. we are also a member of the

united fresh produce association and i served on nutrition and health council. we have a saying at copper canyon farms, our school customers deserve the best. success to us, students eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, going home and telling their parents about the new fruits and vegetables they tried at school and helping to improve their families eating habits. we consider ourselves more than a supplier or bad weather. we are partner with our school customers. our goal is to be a solution provider through information, training and consultation assisting schools to successfully implement the new fruit and vegetable requirements. our staff meets with our school customers throughout the school year to discuss the new fruit and vegetable items available, seasonality, local produce and getting the best value for their limited budgets. we provide schools with fresh produce standards and handling guide as at training tool and

provide schools with special training workshops, nutrition education materials, farmer bios and participate in district kickoff events. this is a collaborative relationship. highlight of a few examples, for the fresh fruit and vegetable program we work with schools to lower, labor and packaging costs while providing a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, individually portions and in a system easy to deliver to the classroom. we have a booth at the utah show each year. injun we demonstrated how schools could build fresh vegetables in bite sizes. win one attendee said we don't have grills in our school, this is not realistic, we showed them how the same results could be achieved using school ovens. we introduced new green leafy salad mixes the more appealing, nutrient dense and cost-effective. from our experience there are a few key points i want to make,

schools that were proactive in improving the helpfulness of their school meals early on and made incremental changes and offered nutrition education are not having problems or experiencing significant increases, a successful elementary schools that qualify for the fresh fruit and vegetable program previously introduced their students to a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as part of their lunch program. students eat fresh fruits and vegetables when they are serving great tasting fruit and vegetables presented in an appetizing manner. the dietary guidelines for americans calls for children and adults to make half their fruits and vegetables and every meal. how can you call a school breakfast or a school lunch a meal if it doesn't include at least a half cup of fruit or vegetables? after all it is only a half a

cup per meal. the produce industry stands ready to support schools turned -- food-service directors in signet successfully implementing fruit and vegetable requirement. last week myself and other produce distributors, growers, fresh cut processors and united fresh produce association hosted a fresh produce pavilion at the school nutrition association's annual convention in boston. hundreds of school food service directors came to ask the expert produce solutions center to ask questions about produce our f ps and to talk about how to produce or procure more fresh fruits and vegetables. we presented two education workshop sessions in an effort to assist the school nutrition community. we strongly support the continued implementation of the healthy and free kids act of 2010 and maintain requirements that schoolchildren have access to a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables and select

a half cup of fruit or vegetable at each meal. this is about improving the health of america's children. thank you for the opportunity to speak today and i am happy to answer any questions, thank you. >> thank you to all of you for your important testimony. let me get into questions, a lot of questions, we don't have a lot of times the level ask everyone to be brief so we can all get in as many as we can because i know there is a lot to say. let me start with you because we hear a lot of concerns about the difficulty getting students to accept new healthy foods and i know through -- i think back to myself or my kids how things go up and down and it takes time to change, and change can be a challenge in our own lives but

you said students are enjoying the food, particular leave the produce in detroit so i am wondering what you are doing differently, for students to want to eat fruits and vegetables. the 2010 healthy and under free act was passed i didn't wait until 2014 before i started introducing kids in detroit, we got to do things early because of the strong red mistreated standards this guy was going to have when he came to review the program so use things like a fresh fruit and vegetable program, introduced those items to children, they ate them in the natural state and put them on the menu. we implement what is served which is flexibilities that the usda provides, kids don't take all the items but just leave the line with a cup of fruit and we

also, budget permitting introduce local foods, introduced local foods at a time. being from michigan and apple was primary so all the different varieties of appless and then if you start early kindergartner and fourth graders understand this was the lunch program. fourth graders are a graders now and they know what a school meal looks like in detour. eighth graders or twelfth graders and hopefully when they are going on to college, they have the inexperience of eating healthy food so it is really about continuously putting items before the demand using various resources people like the produce providers or department of education provided to us so that kids get used to seeing these items on their trades. mr. muir, you talked about getting of the best value for

produce, reducing plate waste, we hear a lot of concerns and i met once or twice myself dumping things out. i don't think it is new that kids do that so could you talk about how you are working with rural communities to address concerns and challenges that have been raised? >> good question. we do work closely with our school districts to limit that. the best way to fight that is serving appropriate prepared fresh fruits and vegetables that someone actually wants to eat. as far as rural schools are concerned, that is a challenge. as an example we serve cokeville, wyoming, 153 miles,

about 118 miles from salt lake city. 127 families in that community yet we get fresh fruits and vegetables to their school every week. it takes some effort and effort on their part, we have assisted them in educational pieces so they can provide the same level of education and fresh fruit availability as urban schools do. that is one example. another is in wyoming, not easy to get to. it is in the middle of a beautiful country and takes a ride on three separate trucks to get there but we get produce there on a weekly basis for them too so produce can be distributed to local schools that it takes extra effort either ron organizations like mr. clemens mentioned or on distributors providing educational material to help underpin those small school districts. >> thank you very much.

i don't think i will have a chance to get into the issue i want to bet may be on a second rounds, maybe children, is an issue of concern we need to talk about but i do want at this point to congratulate you on your convention. staff was there and senator cochran's and mine. sounds like you had a great convention and there were 400 vendors that participated. congratulations on that and they demonstrate products that were compliant and in order to participate oil 400 had to demonstrate products that were complying with breakfast, lunch and competitive food requirements. is that correct? >> yes. we were fortunate to have many of our industry supporters there to provide a variety of product. industry stepped up to the

plate, products that meet the fat requirements that are lower in sodium and whole grain rich and very thankful for is that. in my business with reporters on the show floor i went to produce rolled, the many new products that produce vendors are offering. our members support the increased quantities of fruits and vegetables, the wide varieties of fruits and vegetables that many districts are struggling with the challenge of procuring, areas serviced by mr. muir are very fortunate but we are also concerned about what is going in the trash can and students could choose it if they like, how the money might not go in the trash can that might use nutrition education which is important getting children to change their eating habits. >> it is a good step forward and i congratulate you and getting

400 vendors that already adjusted their production capabilities to meet sodium 1 targets, fruits and vegetables, a good first step in continuing to work with you but i thought that was an impressive first step. so let's turn to thad cochran. >> thank you for your leadership sharing this hearing, we appreciate your participation of the panel and witnesses. i want to ask mr. clements, director of the office of healthy schools and child attrition at the department of education, what his experience has been with the use of tools such as the menu planner which you have created at the state level to try to implement meal standards in schools throughout our state. would have been your challenges for successes that you could

share with the committee in the panel? >> the biggest success we had was in 2010 we came up with an aggressive training schedule and we provided in 2012 and again in 2013 regional sessions for all our assets have as to get training from our office. that has been critical for our small school districts to have the tools to implement the changes and the printed versions are coming. the challenges we had have unfortunately been the complexity of the rules. the expression used in mississippi sometimes i am sure you will appreciate this coming from home, we thought we were drinking from the fire hose sometimes. there have been 150 policy memos

that came out to clarify regulations since 2010 and that has been a big challenge to get those at our level end decide how to implement them and get training out to the school districts. we know our partners worked very hard and we appreciate their efforts but sometimes that this will come out close to the implementation deadline. we may get a few weeks or months before that and that is hard for us because we have to make our training on what we think at the time and we make our best effort there but sometimes this policy memo will change at the last minute or with of the exemptions coming out that are beneficial but when they come out at the last minute it is hard to have it with our purchasing cooperatives and contracts are in place years in advance to get training to food and service

administrators. >> thank you, madam chair. >> thank you. senator brown? >> this is a really important discussion and i appreciate all of you waiting in the way you have. the testimony from all of you has shown us as history illustrates that change is always difficult. you use the term there is short-term pain, that is right. we acknowledge that but i also think dr. wilson's comments that this creates lifelong eating habits for young people as they become older people and how important that is so thanks for all you are doing to get through this and such a change as you have made for a good wheel in the default public-school send you are doing in mississippi and you are all doing so thank you for that. for dr. wilson on want to mention the experience of

cincinnati public-school. cincinnati was the first big school system in the countries that started a school lunch program that was not government subsidized, 115 or so years ago. the food service director told us she serves 50,000 meals a day, salad bar increase in every school, increase participation, working with students to feature appealing healthy meals and done this while finishing the 2012 school you with a significant profit. how do we replicate that success in big city school districts or other school districts generally? >> thank you. it can be replicated and it has been in many districts as well. another one started early, and she didn't wait for the deadline, she started early. usda has healthier u.s. school challenge and it is a voluntary programs that started before the meal program so many schools

that got on board and started with the school challenge, it involves nutrition education and the meal pattern and physical education and the training class for that still lot of those schools started early and got things rolling. they were able to undo in the minute my experience four years ago i wasn't a very rural school district to start my program and fresh fruits and vegetables we put a mandatory you have to serve three covers. that is what my clerks were told to do increase produce and fresh fruits and vegetables skyrocketed because it was served in an appealing manner but we hold a major city training symposium every year with the institute where we bring the 40 largest district in the country together and have these discussions but you will find out in dallas, texas is working very well, los angeles is doing a good job so they are good role models we could put out. there's a website usda holds to the national a big library called healthy meals and all the

states like mississippi that doing these great things people can use because they were produced by state and federal dollars are on those websites. kansas is another one that does phenomenal work and was way ahead of the game. all of those resources were available to everyone free of charge, menus, ordering lists. >> a question, eight or nine months ago moved into the city of cleveland, the zip code we live in had the highest rates for three years running a few years ago, not in the last couple years had highest rates of foreclosure of any set code in the united states so we know the challenge in urban areas in your city, my city, we have also seen cleveland ranked in the top two or three of many cities of all cities in the country in terms of urban gardening and

specifically i was interested in your comments, what you have done with urban gardening. talk more about that and what the city school food system has done with using community gardens and gardens, urban gardening generally. translate this into what we can do in cleveland and others of us can do around the country in urban gardening selling directly to the schools. >> thank you for the question. one of the things that is most positive, toward public schools we did not try to do it by ourselves. i reach out to numerous community partners and one of my best partners is the detroit eastern market who has access to farmers and i also reached out to michigan state university, the best agricultural college in the country. i would agree with that. through their extension they

provide me with applied agriculturalists and farmers and information. through that collaboration we started to plan. we created the detroit school garden collaborative and i reached out to all the partners in the city that were engage in is that. we talked our children, educated our teachers. that has been fundamentally bordon to us as educating the teachers and also created a huge garden leaders, use dogma ambassadors so those products could be taken care of as they grew the gardens. when we develop our gardens we assisted in three garden bids to be used for items to go into the school meals program. the director of operations created something called the spotlight endowment where our kids use yellow squash and tomatos and they learn during that process they harvest those

things. we can reduce waste and get engaged in it and you can't beat the whole school, you can feed the class and the information, another gift and sense of pride when the biggest source of pride in the foot public schools we have local restaurants to me -- before a public spotlight. ..

a copy of his book those put together by vermont schools working with usda, the new school cuisine. reminded us for members who were later when we started the pumpkin squares you have in front of you have, from vermont. we also thank senator casey for the mushroom meet, meatballs. and apples and so a. so we are eating well today. we will now turn to senator johanns and then senator donnelly. >> thank you. thank you for holding this hearing. let me if i might start with you, ms. bauscher. i found your testimony interesting, and i think very candid and honest about challenges you're facing, like probably every member in the united states senate, i visit a lot of schools, we all do.

it's always a great place to get an honest assessment of things, as you know. when i visit schools, and i opened up to questions come these days over the last few years, as a matter fact one of the common criticism i hear from kids relates to the school lunch program. it may be about choices. it may be about food that they don't want to be. it may be about then that getting enough to eat, that sort of thing. it seems to me that whatever we do with all of our good intentions that if we can't sell it to kids, we are fooling ourselves. because it will go on the plate and then it will go to the trash bin. here's what i worry about. i worry about that we have thrown so much at schools that

we're going to get to a point where participation goes down, schools will back away from the program, kids will back away from the program, and at the end of the day what we end up with is the poor kids eating the school lunch program because it's free and reduced, and the rest of the kids who have the resources from home to do something else are going to do something else. am i missing something here? am i off-base? >> you just summarize many of the concerns that our members across the country have expressed. we want school meal to be appealing to all students. we have to be -- we have to feed all students because we don't want those students to have any stigma attached to receive e-mails. and as i mentioned, members

across the country have worked very hard. many of us, i am with betty. i was an early adopter in cincinnati. i made changes early and often. i cultivated community partners. but that is still a challenge to assure that our meals are appealing to all students. and that's what i think some flexibility is important in ensuring that students continue to come to the cafeteria. we will continue to encourage them to make healthy choices and make the healthy choice the easy choice for them, but operators need a little bit of flexibility in order to ensur assure that af their students participate in the program. >> as each witness was testifying today, it just occurred to me how different the places are you come from. there's nothing like detroit in my state. and i say that just simply

because it's a bigger city than -- i mean, it's just kind of hard to describe. detroit is not like many of the communities i visit, ms. wiggins. would you agree that one of the things we might be missing is a lack of flexibility between a detroit and a carny nebraska? >> i do understand your question but also as the former food service director in ann arbor, michigan, weather was 3% free and reduced, my parents had the ability to have us through either organization document engagement to put food on the tray. i think what you're missing, please understand that school meals is not a welfare program. it derives direct benefit for all children. those children you're worried about, i also have paid

children, those are the children of the working poor, the near poor and the soon to be poor that bring in the junk food to the cafeteria. those kids whose parents can't afford to give the money every day are the kids with their heads down on the cafeteria table and missing lunch. those are the kids now that i'm going to embrace him community a legibility community college building allows me to bring more revenue into my program so that i could support the new nutrition standards. i had a per capita spending because of also a businessperson. i had a per capita spending of $1.98 forget. with cep participation with up 16% a night more money of able to me. now my per capita spending is around $3 because that is the flat reimbursement. we have to be savvy about what we do. in ann arbor, i had to make food

that was more appealing, but i was not -- it didn't cost me -- cause me any difficult. in detroit, i don't know if you heard my testimony, i'm not concerned about the kids on the urban street corners. we do a real good job taking care of them. i'm concerned about the kids in southfield were the poverty rate is about 40%. i'm concerned about those kids, and that's the reason we need to make sure that you reauthorize this program so we can take care of all of our children. detroit is not unique unique and different than the number of poor children in appalachia west virginia or kentucky or any, out west in the native american reservations. they are small detroit and they have the same problem. the programs in the legislation is before you right now, the reauthorization is not only a good start, it's a necessary start that we can talk about

eating all children. >> thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you very much. senator donnelly. >> thank you, madam chair. ms. wiggins, when you have conferences, one of the things that has bothered me so much is a dramatic increase in type two diabetes that we see. is that a subject that comes up at your conference is as to how your efforts can help to stem the tide on this? >> i appreciate that question. that's a subject that comes up in our district, and one of the reasons through the wellness policy we have been able to implement new meal standards. when you see a six year old with type two diabetes, grossly overweight, we know that we have to do something. so our education leaders are just as concerned as i am as nutrition leader, and they

support these new nutrition standards. though it's not just confined to a school lunch lady. is really an issue we all need to be concerned about. >> i would think that's a subject that as you look at it, the direct action of your work can change the impact on the health of our children. >> well, i agree with you. i got truly interested when the secretary of the army came before this body and talk about how our kids were so grossly obese, and i was shaking my head. and then that motivated me more than ever to work hard to implement the new nutrition standards your you have to be a savvy food service director. you've got to use all the tools. usda provides us with a lot of tools. 10% of my food comes from usd commodities. >> my friend senator heitkamp who was here had to go preside over the senate, and one of the

concerns she has is about the equipment used, but as you look at the equipment you have and the equipment that you're going to need, are the things that will help you in that process? and this is for -- i.c. dr. wilson shaking your head. are th there things we can do to help with equipment? >> i will vary greatly to you and what we do across the country as well, in the training with equipment and that used different equipment, that is an issue. there are a lot of infrastructures in schools that don't have coolers and freezers and schools built with a kitchen. as people begin to progress into different sort of mode in feeding children in our school system, updating equipment, getting your equipment is definitely a need out there that we used to the equipment grants years ago when i first started the business, and it was wonderful because you get some really nice pieces of equipment. the equipment now -- you can use

it to steam, bake, roast, all in one piece of equipment so that is definitely a need in the country. >> mr. clements, you know, one of the things you do is try to leverage the purchasing power of smaller districts as well and try to get the best deal for everybody. how do you bring in your local farming -- i'm from indiana and i think one of the most, one of the proudest moments our farmers when they see their products used in their town to serve meals for their kids. how do you bring that to get the? do you need to put our local farmers like purchasing groups? you know, groups that you buy from. what makes it easy for you to try to bring it, bring it as local as possible? >> we have had some big success with local farmers, and we are very happy with it.

we have relied very strong on the agriculture to connect us with local farmers and then to use the programs to actually purchase through the dod program to purchase from them. there are some challenges there. we have many small farmers who struggle sometimes with the cost of certification to show that their food is safe for a vulnerable population. we have very few large farmers who can meet those requirements very easily. and the irony of it has been as we've seen farmers markets increase in mississippi is actually pulled reduce away from the school lunch programs because often they can get a better price. it's a struggle every year to find the products that will come in that we can afford with our limited reimbursement, but our local passion for our state at department has been very helpful with. >> i think within the confines obviously safety, the more

options we also provide our ag committee, farmers markets, other places they can send their produce to. and as i said in talking to farmers, one of the great moments of pride is when they see their own stuff in their own high school of the own middle school making their own kids safe and healthy. so thank you all for your efforts on this, and we really appreciate it. thank you, madam chair. >> think you very much. at this point i'm asking centric gillibrand to take over as chair. i need to go to the floor to speak on a bill we will vote on in a moment. i will vote and come right back. so this point we have senator hoven who's next, and they'll turn the chair over to senator gillibrand, so thank you. >> thank you, madam chairman. this committee is working on the reauthorization of healthy school lunch program. we all want our kids to be healthy and have nutritious meals, but there is a disagreement on the flexibility

that's needed for the school lunch program. and i want to use the whole grains requirement as an example. july 1, the new requirement kicked in and that provides for all cereal grain foods better served, they have to be 100% whole grain products. so we're talking all bread products, crackers, pizza crust, publish ask him anything you can think of that's made with grains. it has to be 100%. so ms. bauscher, i'm going to start with you. again, i mean you represent the 55,000 school nutritionists that have to deliver this program on the ground. not somebody here in washington, d.c. back and say here's what we want is someone us to deliver committee for those children and deliver something they will need. so again address the flexibility issue. then i'm going to come back and i've a question for each one of

our panelists. >> related to the whole grains requirement, you are right, effective july 1, 100% of her grains have to be whole grain rich meaning they are at least 51% whole grain. all of us are there at 50%, and many of us are beyond that. i will be at 100% although there's some new items that my students will be trying this semester and i hope that they like them. across the country this seems to be that single item in most regions that some school food of course have had a difficult find a product that acceptable to the kids. tortillas in the southwest, biscuits and grits in the south, bagels in the northeast. so again i think most districts would have any trouble probably getting to 90% if there was at least an exemption for that culturally significant bright

green item -- bread grains items that they like. again, our manufacturers have stepped up and really produced some great items. posta for example, has been a -- whole-grain pasta has been a problem in my district it might to do coming around on the this gets, finally. but again, directors have a hard time sometimes accessing the products that the students like through their current distribution. >> so what i want to ask each, is it reasonable to allow some of these kinds of exceptionexception s and flexibly, for example, for the whole grains requirements? if your answer is no, if you're not willing to allow us to put any of that kind of flex builder in the law, are you going to commit to make sure that you 100% whole grain products for every single lunch you have for the next year and beyond? i'd like to start with ms. wiggins. >> as a card-carrying member of the school nutrition association and having my president here

still makes me very proud. one of the things that you have not talked about, and maybe some the people you should have at the table are the manufacturers who have worked very hard in formulating those whole-grain products. over the last few years, they didn't wait. they started right away. when i talk to them at the school show last week, one of the things they said was that they support us maintaining the standards because if they have to wait and go back and reformulate that product again or change the standard again, it's going to cost me money. yes, i'm committed to to i have a full grain -- and the biscuits even though i'm from detroit we have the southern feel in detroit so we keep those products. >> so you think it is reasonable and 100% of all grain products that you for all your lunches for the next year will meet that requirement worksite is wanted

of -- >> the answer is yes. >> so there should be no flexibility? flexibility is all relative some time spent i'm asking what about an exception writer for a school that's having trouble meeting that requirement. you know, shouldn't there be some flexibility to allow them to say look, we can get the whole-grain pasta so we may not be able to serve a whole-grain products 100% of the time. should we have that flexibility or not in the program? i'm using that as an expense -- a specific example. i've got to ask for a short response. >> okay. if it's reasonable, yes, sir. >> thank you. >> speaking for our food service administered in which is at our annual conference, and speaking also from the -- would be happy to see some flexibility there. i think a good example is we have an official from usda recently tell us about this great whole-grain biscuit they

had and they later realized that it was a carryover from last year. it was the white biscuits. so while we do have an acceptable product on our bid, we worried about participation next year because it just doesn't have the same taste, texture, feel as the regular white products do. we would support some flexibility, yes, sir. >> ms. bauscher, i think you will answer affirmatively and much of something else. dr. wilson. >> i think there's some miscommunication. whole grain rich means 50% whole grain and the rest enriched. >> but 100% of what you surpassed a lease be at that threshold. so i think we'll start on the. >> there is flexibility right now. there is flexibly on posta of -- >> only for posta. >> correct. there's also the possibly for you, i'm from wisconsin by live in mississippi. they always tell me you want to

fix that great thing. there is the ability to use grids in the program but are counted towards the grain product. sticks a finger should be flexibility or how to rule 100% and that's it? that's what i'm driving at. >> from nutritional standpoint i would say that we need to go with 100%. >> no exception. thank you, doctor. mr. muir. [inaudible] >> you would also commit to have 100% grain products at least 50% of whole grains in all your lunches to mind where you go in the mud where you eat, no matter what restaurant for the next year and you don't see that a hardship? because you believe there should be the exception? >> i was doing it in wisconsin four years ago. ever whole-grain products event. >> this a little bit out of my area of expertise. however, i do have some experience here in several of my school districts came to me two years ago and said we cannot

find whole-grain flour through our normal supplies, grocery suppliers. will you find it for sports we found it for them and deliver it to the school districts now and have been for two school years. so they are proactive and after it. we look at the standards perhaps from the wrong perspective that there a maximum. the standards are really the minimum to -- minimum requirement if we want to solve the obesity problem. and so, therefore, i think we got to maintain the standard and we need to redouble our efforts to work with the school districts that are struggling with the whole grains. >> and allow reasonable exceptions or not? >> i would say let's stay the course, so no exception. >> and again you feel you could accomplish the same thing and will over the next year 100% of the grain products you eat will be at least 50% whole-grain? >> yes. >> thanks to all the panelists. appreciate you being here. >> thank you.

thank you, ranking member, for hosting your so i'm really worried about the obesity epidemic. i'm really worried about it. the food we serve to 319 students who participate is an important investment in the future of our conducts i think this discussion is invaluable. obesity statistics are staggering. one in three kids in a country are now obese or overweight. think about that for a minute. one in three kids. that is an extraordinarily high number. we have schools, kindergartens a nuke state where 20% of the children are obese. so we have an issue about lack of information, lack of understand them lack of standards, access to healthy foods that we talk about in this community for a while. and i think that's why this debate is so important. according to the american heart

association obesity in adolescents cost our country $254 billion a year, 208 billion is lost in productivity, 46 billion in direct medical costs. we have staggering hunger in our country, one in five kids live in households that doesn't put food on the table. a recent survey shows 73% of teachers report having students come to school hungry. these kids, the hotmail to get at school might be the only food the that day. we need to invest in these kids by investing in the food they eat a to .92, the $2.92 that we currently invest in these pre-school meals is not enough. after labor and utility cause are paid only about 1 dollar is invested in actual food. medicine -- in order for these school lunches to be nutritious, we need to invest in additional 35 cents per meal. i'm hoping that members will join me in fighting for this.

so i wish that senator hoeven didn't leave. of course, kids like non-whole-grain. yes, that's what they prefer. they like sugar even more. you give a child a choice, sugar for lunch or would you like a fruit and vegetables, they are going to pick sugar. it's what they like. they are tastebuds love it but we have deceived the adults in the room, just don't give kids the for the one. you have to give them and teach them how to eat well for their whole lives. that takes leadership. it takes determination. it takes creativity. and i love the fact you told the school districts at $3 every day. my children when i was teaching about nutrition and, therefore, five, six, that's how we did. how many colors can you put on your plate. they loved that. because i fed my children steamed vegetables as children, they only like steamed vegetable. they don't want butter on it, they don't want cheese on. they will steamed vegetables. they had -- having eating --

they're not getting healthy foods at home. they are getting refined carbohydrates at every meal. a typical meal will be at burger and fries. of course, they prefer burger and fries. that's what they been fed since they were little. we have to do more. i feel that yes, senator hoeven, it is easy to flexibility. evil like the greats like the like the grits they've had since they were a kid but let's not serve refined pizza at lunch. let's push them to eat something healthy that makes them healthy and reach their full potential. we make it is obese he doesn't reach his full potential. he can't concentrate in class. these often made fun of. he has low self-esteem. he doesn't reach his full potential. she doesn't reach her full potential. so i am grateful that all of you have thought outside the box to forget how to solve these problems, to meet the nutrition

stands. i do not want to back off the standard. let's figure it out. so i'm worried about the school to rollback requirement to school to serve healthier foods. ms. bauscher, is that a true statement? is that the go? >> article is not true about the requirements. again, we fully support the increase quantities and varieties of fruits and vegetables that have to be offered to our students, and many of us, all of us are encouraging students to select fruits and vegetables by preparing them in attractive ways and making a wide variety available. we also support at least 50% of the grains being whole-grain or maybe summer in between 50-100. but again you said it. our students are not seeing some of these foods outside of school, and we also students that go through the line that take it because they have to and then don't eat it.

and if they don't eat they're going to call him and maybe not have a meal and still be hungry. kids will eat if they're hungry. >> i do not agree. if my son got to choose his lunch, he which is candy and cookies. he would choose a. but by the time it's lunchtime, he is so hungry he will eat what i put on display. i don't agree that kids who are hungry don't eat. i do not agree. a hundred cable taken apple. a hungry kid will take some pasta, vegetables. just because it's not their favorite art is funny or doesn't -- they will eat it. and if you offer low-quality food, they will prefer low-quality food. it taste better. sugar, salt case agree. >> we are not often low-quality. we are meeting their caliber requirements to we are meeting the saturated fat requirements and we are reducing the sodium. we will be onboard with a target one sodium requirement that went into effect july 1. but it's all about allowing students some time to catch up.

you don't turn they are tastebuds around on a dime. and we are encouraging them to take healthy choices. >> okay. so i think we need more money in this program. do you think we need more money in this program? >> yes. >> good. during the last reauthorization i support a 35-cent rate rather than 6%. would this help all of you in achieving your goals? all of you, yes? okay. so i would like you to help us do that. because you are the advocates. you are the expert. we have to inform congress that $2 -- what was it, 92 cents isn't enough. whole foods, whole fruits, whole vegetables can be affordable as we increase access. but i can tell you when you have a low-quality vegetable, how many people would prefer steamed green beans over canned

maintains? everyone. there's nobody who prefers canned green beans over steamed green beans. they are a billion times more tasty and salacious in their whole form. so let's focus on how we get the fresh whole vegetables and because a little more. it's cheaper went -- it's cheaper to serve a chicken nugget. but it would've grilled chicken or roasted chicken it's more healthy so does cost a little more so i urge you to please help us achieve that goal by giving us, inform congress on board a little bit of money, and i had a lot of other questions about equipping that i was a bit for the record but agree it is a grant program that we have had in the past. i would like to reinstitute. i do bill to do exactly that. it's not a lot of money, $35 million in grants so school districts can apply so they can have equipment they need to actually serve these fresh fruits and vegetables a whole grains and lean meats. i think we can agree on that. it's not a lot of money. if you go back to the cost, senator thune commuting in my statement that the cost is

$230 billion a year in less performing, a huge strain on the economy. i think the small amount of investment has enormous returned long-term. did you go, senator boozman? senator boozman. >> thank you very much. i appreciate you all being here, and appreciate the hard worker i was on a school board for seven years and understand how difficult it is for those of you who are in the changes. -- the trenches. some of you have figured this out. we've got a problem though because the vast majority of your colleagues haven't figured it out. i visited with a bunch of people, you know, lunch personnel over the past year and they are very frustrated. the things i hear about are the waste, the expense, unfunded

mandate which we have already, and for that to grow. and also kids being hungry. so again like i said, it's great that you all have it figured out to some extent, but a bunch of your colleagues happened and again are very, very frustrated. mr. muir, as ms. bauscher mentioned, we know the price of fruits and vegetables is subject to drought, floods and fluctuations in transportation costs. based on the growing season. how do you cope, how to handle the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables when they're out of season? >> we work with her school districts and try to help them create an annual calendar of the quantities to serve during certain traits of time. and so we stood them away from things we already know -- steered them away, when a production cycle is gapping and the price of the product will be going up. and many occasions if there is a weather event with a product, a

fresh fruit or vegetable and the price spikes, we notify our school districts that hey, i think we need to make a substitution here. under the dod fresh program when our prices are posted we can advance come it's very clear that most of the school districts are savvy to that and when they see a spike in price, they call list and they move away for a substitute product. so we're not spending $20 for something that's normally $8. we tried to do that with all of our school districts. >> i know that your firm -- how do work with the school food authorities to follow the national school lunch act, buy american provision that requires to purchase domestically grown and buses foods to the maximum extent possible? >> under the system that the deity as which is complete on my system that's called favors, we are not allowed to post

nondomestic items on that list. so it's a very regulated, very -- typical for them to make a mistake there and do it. and i think we can provide them a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables all domestic. sometimes not all year but we can do it during the school year. >> very good. thank you. ms. wiggins and whoever would like to answer, some of you have been doing this for a while. are you seeing a reduction in obesity in your children? >> yes, your absolute right, i have been doing it a while. but what i also noticed, i've seen better eating habits. one of the things that we also need to consider is we need to put exercise and gym and some of the other things that burn

calories, because calvert and if you don't give them out you will get overweight. the better eating habits for kids, i really get impressed where my kids are opting now for a fresh apple as opposed to potato chips. we are seeing better eating habits. do i have any empirical evidence? know, but i can tell you the plate waste everybody is talking about, i haven't experienced it that much in detroit. there are other things in the reauthorization and healthy hunger free act that will help us help the people are responsible. the new training requirements and school districts, the level of education among the people who are delivering the program are not equal. you know, i'm business background. i understand i run a small business but when you get an small districts, people don't have the skills and ability to necessarily manipulate their menu to do things. so i respect in this

reauthorization of 2010, the whole thing about education, equipment, the support you gave us. >> thank you. i've got to let senator thune go. but again, don't misunderstand, i'm very supportive of the program, but we do have a problem with many of your colleagues not understanding it, being frustrated. it's got to be fixed and i think that program has to between -- tweet to be effective. the comments you made is excellent in the sense that the other thing we can't do is just focus on this. this is not the only answer. you mentioned exercise and things like that. that's got to be huge part of it also. thank you very much for being here. >> senator thune. >> thank you, madam chairwoman, and i appreciate all of you taking time. thanks for sharing your insights. this issue is upstanders, and i

think it's an important issue, one that i think most of us hear a lot about. standards that are in some cases are leading to food being not being, tossed aside, also standards that are creating significant financial burden on school systems as well. i forgot school administers in my state of south dakota who tell me that a higher cost of food need to make the u.s. food standard has resulted in financial loss. and even in the release of school employees just so that school can meet its financial obligations. so as we look at this issue i think we have to remember that there isn't any federal all regulation or policy that should be considered a gold standard and not to be change. i think the responsibly of this committee as we discussed the reauthorization child nutrition law, this important mission with open minds and with a spirit of cooperation. and not be unduly influenced by the position of those who store ethnic support for standards and are not open to meaningful

change. i want to direct a question if i might to you, ms. bauscher, and that has to do with an issue that is almost specific to my state of south dakota but i'm sure shared by others around the country because i've heard from students, parents, school administrator, child nutrition directors, food service managers about the impact these standards are having. but there's a particular letter that i would like to talk about and that's what i received from 200 students who attend the pure indian learning center. they want to be able to have additional food that are part of their culture serve once a month in the school capture. but because of the influx ability of the nutritional standards not able to do that. and so my question is how can we work in this reauthorization to ensure students are receiving healthy nutritious meals while at same time allowing flexibility to meet these types of requests? and i would say especially in

areas come in indian country in areas that represent and other members as well represent around the country. >> in school districts around the country we are increasingly serving a very diverse student population. in my own district that are over 120 think which is spoken. so the importance of their own eating heritage is a very important to them and we look for ways to incorporate those good. and again i would be hopeful that during the 2015 reauthorization we would also look at that and include reasonable flexibility that would allow students to enjoy the foods of the culture in the school meal program. >> thank you. dr. wilson, do you believe schools are getting consistent and adequate amounts and types of technical assistance in order to successfully ultimate that meets the requirements speak with i think we're just beginning with technical

assistant. the research has been out there for a long time. what's happened is we probably put the cart before the horse because as ms. wiggins mentioned, that in some states there's no requirement for your educational level to run a school nutrition program. back in 1990 we started talking about that, that that did make sense when the federal program and not have any kind of educational requirement at all. some states it's up to the local district who should be running the program the regardless of the size of the program. i know some districts that are really in trouble but part of the problem is that not that they don't want to come is that the person leading the program is not able to. so the whole issue of professional standards is really, really important because you can make all the rules you want but if you don't understand how to do them, then that doesn't help. but helping with professional standards and having people -- and it is too bad we have to require it but in some districts they don't do it. i know that i've worked in a very small rural district, only 1700 kids.

back in 1990 they were throwing away 18 gallons of milk a day in elementary school. we decided to do something about that and to be proactive but it wasn't about because of the kind of food were serving. it was the milk they were dumping a bucket to throw away. that was back in the early '90s. that's nothing new. that has to be proactive ways, to find out why is it being wasted. we switched interdistrict and we did recess before lunch but it had a huge impact on food waste. huge. kids weren't worried about whether they would get out and kick a soccer ball or not. i think they're anecdotal things going around to blame as to why things are happening in the school lunch program but they don't think we've been any good digging as to what really is occurring. as far as professional standards is concerned we do need to have an opportunity for people to be educated. many people say the small districts can't do. in the nursing home situation in this country, you are required to have a registered dietitian

oversee a program. i'm not saying every school district needs a registered dietitian but they very small nursing home in every rural county in this country has to have somebody that comes in, either once a week or once every other week that does some oversight for them, helps them with menu planning, helps them with purchasing but those are the models that are working very well for nursing homes. so there is a way. in my district of 1700, we increase participation, we put a finfund balance in place but my superintendent of the because of the things we did. one of the things it was back in the '90s was putting better standards in place because i come from a nutrition background. it's doable but we are just beginning to change. i think it's going to take a few years for this to really see the outcome of us moving forward with this. >> quickly, ms. wiggins them anything to add? >> i'm very sensitive to preferences among children. i'm from detroit and contrary to

popular belief i have a large middle is, large hispanic and a few lithuanians here as well but african-americans as well. we do serve ethnic foods, but you can't serve them healthy. just give you an example. black people really love greens and a lot of that. but now we've changed it since we know how much it impacts our health, things like diabetes and avoid so now we can enjoy -- my kids on the sole day, we have black eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread, but they're all within the guidelines of usda. it's not like moms, but it is an awareness that that food can be beaten. >> thank you. madam chair, i guess we have a vote on, so thank you and thanks to all of you for being here. >> thank you very much. i appreciate senator gillibrand chairing the meeting what i did, in fact, go speak and vote. and i know what senator

klobuchar coming back 1000 questions and senator gillibrand wants to ask a second round as well. so let me proceed. there are so many different pieces and we need all of your input to help as we move forward on resolving challenges in supporting schools and making sure the children get what they need. i mentioned in the first round but didn't have a chance to get into it, ms. bauscher, the concern i've heard from a lot of food directors do not attempt you would have to be. i heard from students but by the time they get in my death five minutes, whatever. so they take a couple of bites and the figures in trash because they don't have time. i know that kids, a broader question of school districts and how we define lunch and so on. but i wonder if you could tell us a bit more about this issue

of time and impact on it, and whether or not engaging school boards or local leaders, could find solutions to this? >> time to eat at school lunch is a serious concern. in my own district as school administrators are pressured to increase test scores, they shave minutes off of the school lunch period in order to increase the instructional time. and again, the staff at each location is based on the number of meals served at that location. i can't, i don't have the ability to add two or three people so i can increase the service and serve them quickly. and we are looking at ways that we can increase the number of students who serve and decrease the amount of time that they spend in line.

it is an issue that we have discussed in the association, and that we do address in conferences and webinars and other types of material. but it's really a decision we can have some influence on him try to educate school administers about the importance of time to eat lunch. but an area of course over which we have no immediate impact. >> i appreciate that. we would like very much to work with you on options. and i know there's some desire or some areas that have done or are talking about high let's were children or even eating breakfast in the classroom, other options and so on. so we have some things that hopefully we can do to help support you, tools that relate to that because i think there really is a very important issue for students. and also let me just ask you, because we hear so many

different things depending on the school, depending on the state and so one, and i know in kentucky, your home state, that kentucky was nearly 100% compliant with all the standards by should i want to congratulate you as being an early adapter in your school and the work you have done. when we look across at states like kentucky with a lot of room committees and so on, we see jackman are in harlan county or lisa simpson, davies county, talking about their successes and implementing the standards and they've indicated they don't see challenges. they wouldn't asked for a waiver and some. yet we hear different things into the schools about what's happening. i wonder what is different in these schools from other schools that we are doing about? and how do we help the schools that are having challenges but also recognizing the schools

that are saying they are moving ahead? >> a lot of it comes down to the support staff in the school of nutrition from. i'm very fortunate that have a number of people on my staff that are assigned specific duties related to our school meal programs. i can tell you that since the healthy hunger-free kids act went into effect i have had to take one key position, the courting of food procurement menu planning and switch that into too. positions. i think mr. clements alluded to the complexity of the requirements. so i had one position who now concentrates on food or chairman and writing specifications and ensuring that students have the opportunity to sample new products. i have another person and works on the menu planning and does all of that and takes care of special dietary needs. so that points to the complexity

of some of this, and i think more districts are better equipped to handle that. not all food nutrition dredgers may be equipped with schools necessary to handle the many changes that have occurred and the complexities of those changes. i'll tell you a story. i ended food service required food service director training in frankfort not long ago. small groups, and there was a new director there. he's been a school food service director just two years, it and he formerly worked at the state department and he does can he said i am so overwhelmed because he's trying to do everything himself, i focus on one thing this year and i will focus on another thing next year. so again, people are feeling overwhelmed in terms of trying to handle all of the changes because there has been a lot of changes in the relatively short period of time for many of us.

>> thank you. itself that it would be helpful if you make it if we make sure you have the resources as well. and, finally, an alternate over to senator klobuchar. let me just ask mr. clements. and again congratulation on which you been doing in mississippi. very different than detroit and kentucky, utah, wisconsin certainly. but we are seeing positive things being addressed. i know that mississippi -- child obesity and congratulation because i know your work on healthier school meals as we made a difference in children's lives, literally, them living longer but we should feel very good about that. and you've implemented the nutrition standards for competitive foods well before the national policy was developed to someone if you could talk about the successes and challenges you've had, state

competitive food standards and the health benefits that you've seen as a result of the changes. >> we've been very fortunate in mississippi come in many respects we have -- board of education who spoke very congresses of the challenges we have in our state. as far back as the 1980s, implementation, aggressive competitive food policy, an hour before any new program. that was designed to protect the school lunch program and the school breakfast program. and beyond that we don't have what most schools have is force à la carte sales. students must pick up a complete reimburse me a and not purchased any experts. some of the sub in place for many years. in '07 our state legislature address competitive foods. we put in very strange and vending policies that actually are closely aligned to the new

rules. schools did see some loss of revenue there but we've also seen some very good things going on. we sing very good compliance. it took them a little while to get on board. there was a transition period but we've been very fortunate in our schools to adopt those and have accepted them greatly. >> thanks very much. senator klobuchar. >> well, thank you very much, madam chair. sorry i have something else this morning. i really appreciate that the hearing is still going on. and i think this is something that really important to all of us. i know something you are passionate about. something we care a lot about in our states, and i supported a healthy hunger free act in 2010 when it passed in a bipartisan basis, overwhelming support. our schools are a critical partner in this effort and we've made some progress. we have been able to say that for a few years but we've made

some progress in at least stabilizing the rate of childhood obesity in part because of the form of it has been an editor i think we all know that there is work to be done. we know it's been acknowledged up to that change is an easy and that preventing childhood obesity won't happen overnight but i do think we should be rolling back or post putting the standards right now, but i think always good to what people have to say and also coming from a 10 -- a ag state, at the beginning of august i wanted a little bit about the issue which another chairwoman has been involved in iencouraging local and regional ag products for school meal programs. i think it's a good bridge between our nations farmers and our children, and according to the usda, minnesota school districts sportscenter 12% of the school budgets on local products. could you provide may be,

ms. wiggins, insight in how you see this process as a long-term strategy to support kids and also the agricultural community? >> i'm happy to report that 22.5% of our produce dollars are on michigan grown produce. i think long-term strategy means that we have to develop some supply chains. a little rural school, i have to tell my story. i'm from a little farm town in michigan, and i went there for a meeting and a note to local farmers. i'm going to get my food your schools but and i said, no, i can't. well, i need one scooper isotype 131. so the way that we handle, i had to discipline people i grew up with, but the way that we handled getting fresh fruits and vegetables into school at local, at the local level, i have to do felt some supply chains can have to develop some cooperation.

one of the things the state of michigan does, we talk about how we can help one another, we have something called an alternate agreement whereby i can provide services to the small school districts that don't have the capability or the education and equipment or even the time that i provide my services. i put those districts in with detroit public schools so when detroit public schools kids get that 14 cents apple that senators always proud to talk about, if those small schools weren't with the that apple would cost them 4 cents. so the ability to collaborate and cooperate is what's going to extend this broke in and allow us to add those important products. senator klobuchar, i just left st. paul, director of st. paul and director of minneapolis yesterday and we were in a meeting trying to form a collaborative so that we could

create a larger market basket so that we could go out on the market and a peer more attractive. vendors -- manufactures, they are not giving us food and i don't have a problem with that. but if what we can do is collaborative will ensure that my farmers in michigan and in minnesota don't have to plow under products that my kids could eat, that we consider ourselves -- >> one other thing our agricultural extension service at the university of minnesota did a study and it doesn't surprise me because we have seen this with local products in general, that's what our red wing shoes are doing great. people interested in being part of something that's local. what we found in the study there was a three to 16% increase in the school milford suspicion when there was a farm to school program. i think -- i know there's been supply chain issues. i've heard about some of this but i think we have to remember if we can work this out it's not only good for the kids it

increases the interest and their families interest in being part of it because they see it as part of the local community. ask one more question here with my time. of you, ms. bauscher. in your test may come and i know earlier you talked about school districts that it had trouble finding acceptable foods that introduce whole grain stand to county schools have taken advantage of the to school flexibly provided by usda on whole grain a note to allow time for the industry to develop a workable product? >> i do not have an answer to that question. i know in talking to colleagues from around the country as recent as last week in boston, i've got to districts who have applied for the wave and i talked to districts that don't have a need for the waiver, including my own. sometimes it can be districts that are adjacent to one another. so i don't know how many have

actually applied. >> okay. i think would be helpful to know because there is that possibility out there, people try to be as little as possible. mr. clements, just one more question. outside of the new standard competitive state agencies and schools determine what products will be included in the vending machines and the a la carte lines? i worked very hard on the vending machine issue. i care a lot about it after having my daughter in public school and watching what was coming in the vending machines and some the kids in afterschool programs like she was and what they were eating. so what methods of the violation have been used from vending machines? >> again, we had policies in the state that were very similar to smart snacks. we at the state agency provide that service to school authorities. we make the evaluation for them and they don't have to any technical skills so that we have that expertise, our office. we published a list and if that

individual products, they can give information and we can get back to them. the our online calculators they can go to. we encourage it if you'd like to. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. senator klobuchar, again thank you for presiding over this committee today. >> thank you again for holding this hearing but i think this is a vital issue because of obesity rates in children and how important it is for the health and well being. i want to continue along the lines that senator klobuchar started at what we've done, food of our increase in popular across new york state. they vary from not-for-profit, working with local foods to underserved areas to large enough for-profits serving hundreds of businesses. for example, new city wholesale grain market as well as a for-profit business and increasing the individual to my

team works closely with different food of the organizations that has helped to secure grants, loans and other services to advance the commission. could you speak of imports of food hubs and that ties the school nutrition and the work that you do? >> food hubs actually question, food hubs are playing a role in getting locally grown produce to schools and other end-users. the big issue of course is a lot of these local growers are known as a micro growth and not commercial so, therefore, they don't have the distribution. food hubs play a critical role in getting produce from the farm to the end-users. in addition to nonprofit food hubs come sometimes they also have some challenges in distribution. and where we don't have a successful nonprofit in our

market, food hubs, we have stepped in as a distributor to act as the local food hub working with her school districts. .. what is some policy ideas you could offer that we could expand food hubs? we try to use the program as aggressively as we can in supporting grant applications

and getting access to capital but do you have any thoughts how to expand the program? >> i don't specifically. i know it is a big challenge. and, we need to continue to work on that. we also have to keep in perspective that all of the local foods is a good way to go, it is not the, can not solve of our problems. we still have to rely on commercial sectors, commercial farms to produce a large quantity of product for our sources. large school district go to small growers we want to use your produce, they could wipe out his crop all in one day. we have to put that in perspective. we continue to work with the food hubs and it is a whole distribution system to all of us so it will take time to develop. >> when we get it implemented it

is incredible. this past year usda allocated $100 million to help meet with the new nutrition standards however more than half money was returned to the usda that means states are not utilizing all resources available to them. for example in new york state, 46% of the implementation fund are not being used which equals $2.5 million. so, dr. wilson, could you speak to what you're doing in your state to leverage usda dollars to provide technical assistance to schools to meet nutritional standards? >> this is snags institute and we go nationwide. we're doing technical assistance in new york city right now. >> great. >> it is coming from our budget, not theirs. that has been an issue. there are ways those states can contract with us. we had outside contracts with number of states using nutrition money, some of their sae fund to contract with us to do specific things in their state. mississippi did it.

they have some foundation money from bower foundation and we concentrated in their state and did culinary training because scott wanted that in their state. california the same thing, 10 culinary trainings to train trainers to go out and train. those states can use the money with us, very easily and get us to put experienced trainers on the ground to help them make sure that those standards are being met and there is all different topics that we offer from hand-on to online, from culinary to financial management to use those monies. >> thank you, madam chairwoman. >> thank you very much. thank you to all of you. this is really an important snapshot i think of how a program is working across the country. the challenges that we face. we want to work with all of you, to continue moving forward. build on best practices. be able to support and tackle things that we still need to tackle to make sure that all schools are successful because, the bottom line we're talking about something pretty important

here in terms of the health of the future of the country. tackling childhood obesity and adult obesity, based on habits we all acquire as we are children and certainly we know that change always is a little difficult, but in this case, is well worth the effort. so thank you again. we look forward to working with you on the reauthorization of the child nutrition program and i would say that to my colleagues any additional questions for the record should be submitted to the committee clerk five business days from today, that is 5:00 p.m. on wednesday july 30th, and the meeting's adjourned.

>> so that wraps up our look at the nation's school lunch programs. by the way if you missed any of this we will show it again at 1:10 p.m. eastern and later today at 4:50. tomorrow our consumer issues series continues with a hearing focusing on truck safety. we'll wrap things up on friday on a discussion of phone bill cramming when third parties make unauthorized charges to your phone bill. here is what is ahead today on c-span2 up next another interview from our latest book, sundays at eight. we'll show you a conversation with author isabelle wilkerson from q&a program where she talks about african-american migration to the north. we'll show you all of today's edition of "washington journal." following that, it is that school lunch hearing once again. >> here are highlights for this weekend, friday 8:00 p.m. eastern a history tour looking at civil war. saturday, 6:30 p.m. eastern,

"the communicators" visits a technology fair on capitol hill. sunday on "q&a," author, former presidential candidate, pat buchanan. on c-span2, friday night, 8:00 eastern, hits on hillary clinton, barack obama and edward snowden. saturday on 10 p.m. eastern on afterwards, "the weekly standard"'s daniel halber. sunday we tour the literary sites of casper, wyoming. on c-span3, friday night eastern, negro league, kansas city monarchses. the depiction of slavery in movies. sunday on real america at 4:00 p.m., an interview with president herbert hoover. let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call us at 202-626-34 unh or i mail us at comments@c-span.coring. like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. >> more now from author interviews featured in c-span's

latest book, sundays at eight. up next a conversation with isabelle wilkerson who wrote about african-american migration to the north this from our q&a series about an hour. >> isabelle wilkerson, author of warmth of other sons. do you remember the moment you start thinking about doing this? >> i can't say what the moment was, because i've been living it all my life. my parents migrated from the south. to washington, d.c. my mother from georgia. my father from southern virginia and washington. where they met, married and then had me. so without the great migration i wouldn't be here. i don't know who you would be talking to. so i lived with it all my life. i grew up with people from north carolina, south carolina, georgia, all around me in the neighborhood where i grew up. and i was surrounded by the language, the food, the music, the ambitions too of the people who migrated from the south.

a lot of competition about whose child would go to which school, catholic school, school across the park. it has been with me all this time but i think when it comes to the actual writing of a book it probably started very likely after i had gotten out and been a reporter for "the new york times" and started to talk to people in other parts of the country. i was chicago bureau chief "the new york times." i would go to chicago. i would be in cleveland and be in detroit and i begin to hear there were similar migration experiences people had. no one talked about it as migration experience, talk about that, i can't talk with you. this weekend we have to go back to mississippi where there is family reunion or funeral to go back to. i began to connect the dots. it was big than my experience with washington or chicago or even los angeles. it was a national outpouring of people. >> just give us a brief synopsis of what the book is