according to the centers for disease control childhood obesity has more than doubled

and quadrupled in the past 30 years. up next the senate agricultural for a stray committee looks at school programs across the u.s.. the witnesses include a school nutrition experts including the president-elect of the nutrition association who discusses the purchasing, procurement and preparation of school meals this is just over two hours. we are going to make this a weekly effort and i know that senator leahy intends to come out here brought us some pumpkin squares that we have from the

school menu in vermont. we've tasted one. it's absolutely delicious. from bob casey we have mushroom and meatballs and these are also great. i feel like i'm o i am on the fd channel right now. [laughter] but these are also. we thank senator casey who will be joining us and they will talk to us about what a habakkuk looks like. we've got some apple slices so we are here for the duration. we can last a while this morning. and not to offend my wonderful cafeteria folks that we didn't eat like this when i was in school. this is very delicious food this morning.

so, we are very appreciative of everyone being here for the second iran child nutrition and being able to talk to those who are working hard to make things happen for our children. let me just start by saying what we all know that according for the centers for disease control, obesity in young children has more than doubled in the last 30 years. that's why this discussion is so important. and it's grown more than four times higher for teenagers in the same timeframe. that's why we are involved and we care and why this is a priority. that's why one in three children as either overweight or obese. and as a country we spend one out of every five healthcare dollars treating obesity related illnesses every year. and the first hearing on this issue we heard jarring testimony from the military general that

75% of the youth cannot qualify for military service. 75%. so if we can turn a corner in the country by offering healthy food choices and by teaching healthy eating habits, we will not only improve the health of our children. the full administrators and professional parents, community leaders are meeting the needs of our children every day by working together to serve healthy meals. we heard the jokes about school meals and going about the official sticks and mystery need to talk those and cafeterias for the deep fryer's and i know that those are gone in detroit and in those days i know are over. i had the opportunity to visit many schools all across

michigan. and i've been very impressed to see elementary school students enjoying broccoli and pineapples from salad bars an and students learning about where food comes from in the farm to school efforts that are very exciting. of the schools are installing salad bars and low-fat turkey burgers and burritos packed with vegetables and whole grains. schools are encouraging shogren to eat healthier by showing them that healthy can taste good, too. in some cases they are not only enjoying the food at school but are beginning to ask for it up at home. i've talked to local grocers who have different days have said they run out of different vegetables or food and couldn't figure out what was going on and discovered that is the day that it was being served at school. and the kids are going home and asking for the parents to buy it. it's really interesting.

this is an important when you look at where we are right now in terms of childhood obesity. we can only make these changes if the food industry, nonprofit organizations, agriculture, state and federal agencies the cafeterias for classrooms all work together. today we will hear how the schools are providing these wonderful foundational meals every day like the ingredients for the schools does represent a key ingredient in helping the schools rise to the challenge of feeding the nation's children. as we know this is not an easy task. but the goal of reducing child hunger and obesity is too important to reverse the course. instead we are looking forward to how we can work together. today we will examine some of the challenges the schools face in providing access to healthy food and most importantly what solutions are there to address

many of these concerns. thank you and i now want to turn to my distinguished ranking member and friend for his opening remarks. we appreciate the attendance of all who are here today and especially pleased that we have two witnesses on the panel from mississippi to discuss the programs in the school feeding programs and other programs that are related to the interest in federal support for good programs that increase efficiency and provide benefits or nutritionist physical soundness that we need in the country. we can continue to improve on the federal role in this hearing

also has that purpose and comments and suggestions from the witnesses about ways to improve the programs which are welcomed and encouraged. we think that there should be local flexibility to accommodate the common sense concerns from the administrators at the local level and any suggestions for changes in the federal legislation in the underlining legislation supporting these programs is welcomed and we appreciate your participation with us in this endeavor. >> thank you very much. the representatives from mississippi are here so we are going to introduce the members. certainly if you want to add the appropriate place to introduce the members and guests we

certainly want you to do that. the food services for the detroit public schools. i have seen a number of them so they are throughout the city and supported by the farm to school program and improved the local community by serving minimally processed locally produced foods whenever possible. for the public schools in washington, d.c. also serve as the vice chair of the local food association and the national

trade group for local businesses that work to increase market access and market share and the commercial buyers of local food. >> madam chairman, it is my pleasure to present mr. scott clements is the director of the office of child nutrition and healthy schools at the mississippi department of education in mississippi. in his role he administers aid federal nutrition programs including th national and school lunch and school breakfast food service and child and adult care food programs. in addition his office direct several school related health programs. he has 14 years of experience in child nutrition. he's a past presidenhe is the pe mississippi school nutrition association and has served on the usda child nutrition state

systems working group. doctor kathryn wilson is the executive director of the national food service management institute at the university of mississippi in oxford. she serves as associate director, i'm sorry, associate professor at the university as well. she holds numerous academic degrees in food science, nutrition and related fields. she has 23 years of experience as a school nutrition director. she has also served as the president of the school nutrition association. i'm pleased both of them could be here today to help us review the proposals for the legislation on the nutrition programs that are administered by the federal government. >> thank you very much. next we are pleased to have

julia who is president of the school nutrition association for 2014 and 2015 school year. she's also the director of school and community to attrition programs at jefferson county where the meals to 100,000 students are served up 144 schools. prior to joining the school district, she was a sales manager for three different food manufacturers, campbell's soup company and the cyber company. since joining the district in 1994, she has overseen the development of essential kitchen and has leveraged the community by enlisting the help of a local professional chef to develop recipes. finally we are pleased to have the president and ceo of the copper can inform who oversees the family produce business that

began in 1850. you don't look that old actually. that's pretty good. the farm is based on salt lake city utah serving the entire state of utah and parts of idaho and wyoming. the clients include k-12 schools, universities, casual and fine dining restaurants. he serves on the nutrition and health council of the united foundation and in 2007 he served as the chairman of america's leading distributor of fresh produce to the food service industry. welcome to all of you and let me remind you that we do ask you to limit your comments to five minutes and we welcome any other written testimony and information that you like to give us but in the interest of time we have a vote at 11:00 today so we want to make sure that we have ample time to move through and ask questions.

>> honorable members of the committee i am the executive director of the detroit public school office of nutrition and i'm honored to be with you here today to address what i believe to be a topic of fundamental importance to all of us the health and well-being of america's children. as we all know the lines there are no d's and r.'s there are only young americans and i'm grateful to the chairwoman and ranking of the cochrane for thee deliberative and constructive tone of the kennedy's deliberation on the issue. the trials and tribulations in the district with the enrollment in the multiple facility closures in the recent years i have pleasure in supervising the high-quality meal males to approximately 50,000 value children. most eager breakfast and lunch with us and also eat supper within our facilities. our work makes it a critical

positive difference in their lives in the community. we were the first school district in the country to make this available supported by several studies have demonstrated a direct correlation to. we offer suppers for at-risk students. in the troy, we warmly welcome the higher nutrition standards of the 2010 healthy and hunger free kick that. the improved nutrition standards provides a framework in the legislation including additional training opportunities for school nutrition staff.

yes, senator deep fat fryer's are obsolete. they are a force for positive change in detroit the force that we see for improving the lifelong health and well-being of our children. in addition to the new equipment cut through distribution partners are finding the products we needed to provide our children the quality food they need and deserve. it's designed to help us meet the retirement requirement in all of this is enabling us to be more effectively served. it's required for the free

school meals and i've discovered through my career that hunger and measures an the version is d in the low income families. it's as uncommon as the end of the cul-de-sac as it is among the urban street corners. the community eligibility received the option and allows high poverty schools to provide breakfast and lunch to all students free of charge. they provide benefits to reduce the administrative burden resulting from elimination of the paper applications and the increased petition participation rates and the economies of sca scale. improving the overall financial stability of our school programs as you are likely aware 4,000 schools in the state are now

participating. the work of you and your committee, chairwoman stabenow is making a critical positive difference in the lives of tens of thousands of detroit's children each and every day. each of you know far better than i do think usda funding is all about improving the economic conditions of rural america. one of my greatest joys and another direct benefit of improving the nutrition standards have been increasing the purchasing of michigan grown farm products. as the vice chair of the local food association donations only trade association for the buyers and sellers, we have produced local food motivated to do my part to increase the market share of the local farmers. our school program has reduced partnerships and regional farmers that are generating healthy returns for them and our children. we are feeding asparagus to inner-city teenagers and they like it. we are increasing our chocolate

exposure to fresh food, lifelong habits that will produce improved health and in addition fresh fruits and vegetables with nearby programs we also have an additional benefit of delivering the educational opportunity in the classroom business by participating farmers and scored in opportunities. in 2012, the community partners initiated the effort at the school and throughout the district spanning the teachers access to the laboratories to teach the children of the health and eating, nutrition and the growing food increasing the access to the fresh fruit and vegetables. each piece feature and thereby having access to fresh fruits and the chapels. the learning centers now have 71 schools and gardens and a two and a half acre school farm and bigotry established.

we are also engaged in the development of the project which is the repurposing of a close high school site. in conclusion our recent shared progress towards improving the school nutrition programs represent a solid value for the position for the nation. as leaders responsible to the fe well-being of children whether we are parents in congress and the school of attrition officials and food business in the usda we must focus away from the process of change and instead emphasize the progress and able to play thes enabled bw policies. institutional change is difficult. it always takes time and includes short-term discomfort. the investment prompted by an approved school nutrition standards have and will continue to generate valuable returns. after the short-term pains.

it's highly desirable. the change work takes time. nine out of ten school districts across the country are already in compliance with the new standards and we are making it work and work well. i'm confident they will do the same. thank you for the opportunity to be with you, chairwoman stabenow and as a michigan resident. thank you very much we are pleased to have you here today. we welcome you as well. >> thank you very much. chairwoman stabenow, ranking member cochran, members of the committee and the director of the office of healthy schools and also child nutrition education. on behalf of the superintendent the state board of education and our many thousands of food service workers in mississippi thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. i have a few initiatives i would

like to discuss. first is the statewide cooperative and the first child nutrition statewide in the country. the project began in 1992 and as an effort to both lower the cost and simplify the procurement for the local school districts. the majority of the school districts in mississippi have a very small number of schools and many of these are rural. both the prices and a delivery y fees were high due to the limited buying power of the small districts. however by pulling together the buying power of almost every school in the state we are able to utilize the economies of scale in here and with the volume of purchasing. this allows us to provide significant savings to the mortgage organizations. our office issues this for food and related and in excess of $130 million per year. due to the high volume of purchases we are able to negotiate the prices directly with manufacturers and sometimes

we are able to reduce the cost even further by having the delivery status associated with that. the hundred 83 organizations with almost a thousand delivery sites. the majority of the purpose of getting organizations are public schools and we have all but two of the school districts in the state participating and we have a number of head start and governmental agencies who are also participating in the school lunch program. we are not allowed to use this defense defense fund to support the program unfortunately. instead of the cooperative is self-funded anself-funded into e participants about half of a penny per lunch served to pay for the staff to travel and office supply associated in the program. the donated goods annually through the purchasing cooperative we already have a statewide delivery system in place so we are able to further

reduce the cost for the participating organizations by having those delivered by the same manufacturers and brokers. we also made use of the buying g public is tradition at work of the cooperatives to support the schools at the state level. even though mississippi is an agricultural-based state but challenges remain in the school programs. many of the states most abundant crops, soybeans cannot go to the cafeteria table. then we have many to have harvest during the summer season when school is not in session. we worked together with the department of defense and the mississippi department of agriculture since 2002 to bring locally grown products to schools throughout the state. in 14 perco 15 we will have a million dollars worth of locally grown produce delivered through the office. another was to assist the

schools in meeting the sodium requirement. when first announced the product simply did not exist to make it available for schools to meet the sodium requirement and still have nutritious and appetizing meals to maintain precipitation. the backbone of the cooperative and played a role and we were able to partner with hf from the culinary institute and the national manufacture. they produced a low spice blend we have three of them available now. and those are now available to schools throughout the united states. we also supply schools with 50 recipes to incorporate to reduce sodium in the school meals. i would like to talk about the school recipes and menus since 1996 mississippi has provided the mississippi cycles and it was a program coordinated program of the sample menus and

recipes that was updated in 2005 with a healthy act of 2010 system no longer works. the planning was more complex so we put together a task force to create the mississippi recipe for success. we have standardized menus, we have an online program that is available to any school in the country that would like to participate. and this was all in response to the complex menu planning that we felt like our small schools just did not have the resources to implement by themselves. with the purchasing cooperative we have standardized ingredients across the board for almost all of our schools in mississippi and that's been a benefit to us

when it comes to the administrative review which are more frequent now than they've been bit by having all of this piece togethethosepiece together process and makes it possible to meet those new standards. thank you again for the opportunity to appear before the committee and i would be pleased to answer any questions or provide additional information. thank you. >> thank you very much. we are so glad you are here. >> thank you chairman stabenow, ranking member cochran and 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 attrition programs. school nutrition professionals recognize the importance of healthy school meals to the academic success of american students. that's why we have expanded our school breakfast options to increase the summer feeding sites, launch new programs and are taking advantage of the new community eligibility provisions. we have worked diligently to

improve the nutrition of the school menus and we support most of the new regulations. we are increasing the serving size and variety of the fruit and vegetables we offer something more whole grains and meeting the limits on calories and fat while reducing sodium. we are also making healthy choices more appealing to students and a steadily increasing the quantity of local food we serve. school nutrition professionals are truly committed to the healthy under act and the goal of expanding access to school meals and that is why we are so concerned about the historical decline in the student lounge participation. the national school lunch program has grown steadily and according to a usda under the requirements for student participation is abruptly down in 49 states. more than 1 million students choose school lunch each day even though student enrollment and participating schools increased by 1.2 million last

year. we've witnessed 15% decline in the paid meal participation. if the trend continues the school cafeteria will no longer be a place where all students dying and learn healthy habits together but rather a place where students must go to get their free lunch. they struggle with new menu options. many have been challenged to find whole-grain rich tortillas, crackers and other specialty items that appeal to students. they complained that they are burned or tasted strange and indeed these whole grains to have a different texture and flavor than what the students might find at home or in their favorite restaurant. they meet all of the standards and tastes. at the eligibility also face

unique challenges under the standards of the family paid meal participation declines. some schools are dropping out of the program rather than having tto meet the cost of the requirements. most school districts however rely on the national school lunch program reimbursement and do not have the option or desire to leave the program. the school nutrition association found that in 2012 and 2013 school year, 47% of the school meal programs reported revenue declined while more than nine out of ten reported to the cost were up. with the federal reimbursement rate for serving the free lunch over $3, schools are required to serve healthy school meals for less than most people pay for their morning coffee. they leave a little more than a dollar on each lunch train.

over the last year the reimbursement rate adjustment for the coming school year was actually smaller than the previous school year. in my district each would cost me a nickel more this school year exceeding the increase for breakfast. although we appreciate every penny received this adjustment comes nowhere close to covering the cost of the schools face now that they must double the amount of breakfast up to a full cup. students must take a fruit or vegetable whether they intend to keep it or not. we watched the despair as much as it is costly produce ends up in the trash $684 million per year according to cornell university researchers. as the schools struggle to manage the cost and waste once was a problem for the meal programs is rapidly becoming a problem for school districts. we cannot carry over the annual losses so they have to pick up the tab. financial instability in the

meal program can cut into the district educational funds. this full schools face more challenges as they were to meet more snacks in school rules. while many requirements are open changes, some of the programs have had to strip the healthy options from their menus because it's direct sodium and enclosing i ask that the association's 55,000 members continue to be part of the ongoing discussion as members of the committee draft reauthorization language. thank you again for inviting me and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> we certainly intend to have you involved all the way along. >> i'm doctor cady wells and the executive director of the national food service management institute at the university of mississippi in oxford mississippi. i appreciate the opportunity to share outreach with you today. we are meeting in the school meal program and the school meal

programs are not only a key part of the vital health safety net for the nation's children as a school nutrition director of wisconsin for 23 years i believe they are the best safety net for the children. the benefit is in the form of food and the child has access to that food. the school meal programs should also serve as learning tools educating children but a healthy meal looks like. we operate in the education arena for the school meals must be part of that process. as a country we have a serious problem with obesity it's simply overwhelming to think about the health of the future. yet at the same time each of us in the hearing room is struggling to balance our idea of what a school meal should consist out an of and under what guidance it should operate. in the learning exchange in the united kingdom might come to learn that school nutrition standards institute throughout the uk years ago are still actively progressing the health and well-being of students created a way to tell you it isn't easy and it takes time for

students to accept them but it's in the interest of national wellness. they've begun to see a decrease along with other positive outcomes. lindsey graham from the uk is here in the audience today is a fellow from the winston churchill memorial trust. she can lend more details after the hearing if there's interest. the strong federal support for the programs in the united states is of interest to the colleagues in the united kingdom. one of the areas are the numerous resources available from the national food service management institute also known as the institute. these resources are available free of charge to assist everyone throughout the united states involved in providing meals to children using the federal school meals program. the institute is the only federally funded national center dedicated to assisting child attrition professionals and in improving the quality and operation of child nutrition programs copyright by congress under section 21 of the richard russell national school lunch

act it is funded by the department of agriculture and other outside foundations. a training and assistanctrainins available in a variety of formats. we have the topics on hands-on culinary training financial management inventory control and meal pattern training available in the face-to-face format for approximately 200 plus trainers organized as the regional training teams throughout the usda region we've provided face-to-face training for the professionals throughout the united states and its territories. i got the numbers for this year it's well over 8,000 face-to-face trainings that over. one specific example including the healthy closin closing its y class a two-day training taught by a chef and a registered dietitian if offered whenever a state nutrition association or state agency requests it. in mississippi the state agency organized eight of the classes with 240 total participants in the state and the two months

ago. in california they organized over ten of the culinary classes throughout the estate with 350 total participants all funded either by outside foundations or the usda grant administered by the institute. these are hands-on classes offering school attrition professionals the opportunity to learn the culinary skills and refresh the ones they already have. all other face-to-face topics are available in the same manner. all of the curriculums for the trainings are all so available to download free of charge for the districts to use within their own time frames and convenience in an easy to use manner. these are anywhere from six to 12 videos on the topics such as cooking peas and beans. we have many of the training is available as online training courses on how to best use the usda food nutrition food safety law row virus and others. there are over 40 topics of online courses easy to access from your computer or tablet.

participants can start and stop them at their convenience and a certificate of completion comes up after the participant completes the course and passes the quiz with a 70% learning rate. in 2012 and 2013 reporting period over 33,000 participants registered and completed online courses through the institute. we are again crowding at exceeding this number has become higher lower 2013 and 2014 report. all available free of charge. individual technical assistance is available free of charge in the state agency or the regional office requests assistance for the specific district the higher a consultant based on the area of experts needed and go in and hope the district come into compliance in whatever area they need. we are presently working with new york city and with personal assistance to the district. these again are free of charge. we've become a focus point for many in the country and the institute and many other allied organizations provide great

resources for school attrition professionals as they work to ensure high-quality nutritious meals being served in the school's children. a child will learn lifelong eating habits during their tenure and in closing i would like to think the senate for its leadership in providing the hearing and your commitment to the children and chil the child nutrition programs. i'm happy to answer any questions. >> welcome. we are glad to have you. >> welcomed ranking member and members of the committee on agriculture and attrition and forestry. my name is philip and by the president and ceo of the salt lake city. thank you for inviting me here today. and for calling attention to the critical issue of the school nutrition. i am compassionate about making a difference in the attrition of the school-age children. if a food service produced a a starter that provide fresh fruits and the chapels to 52 row

and urban school districts in utah, idaho and western wyoming with a total enrollment of 450,000 students. we are the usda prime vendor for schools and three indian reservations in these three states. we have the fresh vegetable program, school agenda the summer feeding programs. schools are up 15% of the company revenue. the number of proactive llc which is a cooperative of the 70 produced us to bidders across north america to leverage the purchasing power together to make the most price effective quality assured food safe purchases possible. we are also a member of the united fresh produce association, and i serve on its nutrition and health council. we have a saying of tropicana farms. our school customers serve the best.

success to us as students eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, going home and telling their parents about the new fruits into the chapels they tried at school and then hoping to improve their family's eating habits. we consider ourselves more than just a supplier or a big winner. we are a partner with our customers. with all of the new fruit and vegetable requirements. the staff meet with the school customers throughout the school year to discuss the different individual items available to the seasonality, buying local produce and getting the best value for the limited budgets. we provide schools with fresh produce standards and handling guidance as a training tool and provide schools with special training workshops and nutrition education materials and participate in the district get

kickoff events. i will highlight a few examples. for the fresh fruit and vegetable program work with schools to lower labor packaging costs while variety of fresh fruits and vegetables individually portioned and in a system easily deliver to the classroom. we have a booth at the show each year ending june we demonstrated how the schools could grill fresh vegetables in byte sizes. when one is that we don't have girls on the school this isn't realistic we showed them how the same results could be achieved using the school. they are more appealing, nutrient dense and cost effective. from our experience there are a few points i want to make. schools that were proactive in improving the helpfulness of the school meals early on and make incremental changes in over nutrition education are not

having problems experienced significant increased wastes. successful elementary schools have qualified for the fresh fruit and vegetable program has previously introduced the students to a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as a part of their lunch program. students eat fresh fruits and vegetables when they are served and great tasting fruits and vegetables presented in an appetizing manner. the guidelines call for children and adults to make half of the plate and vegetables at every meal. how can you call a school breakfast with school lunch a bill if it doesn't include at least half a cup of fruits and vegetables. after all it is only half a cup per meal. the produce industry is committed in the stands ready to raise directors and successfully implement the new fruit and vegetable requirements. just last week myself and other produce distributors fresh-cut

processors and united association posted a pavilion at the school attrition association annual convention in boston. they ask the expert to produce solutions in her to ask questions about writing the produce and talk about how they can produce procured for the vegetables. we also presented the educational workshop sessions all in an effort to assist school nutrition community. we strongly support the continued implementation of the healthy hunger free act of 2010 and maintain the requirements of school children have access to a wide variety of colorful fruits and the chapels and select have a cup of fruits and vegetables at each meal. this is about improving the health of america's children. thank you again for the opportunity to speak here today. and i'm happy to answer any

questions. thank you. >> thank you to all of you for your very important testimony. but we get into the questions we don't have a lot of time so i will ask everyone to be brief so that we can all get as many as we can. let me start with you because we hear a lot of concerns about the difficulty of getting students to accept new pulpy foods and i know i think back to myself with my kids when they were in school and so on helping us get up and dowdown and new food comes in ad take time to change and certainly we all know that change can be a challenge even our own lives. but you've said students are really enjoying the food particularly the produce in the tried. so i'm wondering what you are doing differently that is helping students to want to beat fresh fruits and vegetables.

>> we did in detroit. when the 2012 act was passed i didn't wait for 2014 before i started introducing kids. when they came to review the program we use things like the program that we introduce those items to children and they needed them in the natural state and then we put them on the menu. we also implemented that which is of the flexibility that the usda provides to us and their kids don't have to take all the items they just have to leave the line with a cup of fruit. budget permitting we introduced the local food at a time. being from michigan and apple was finished.

they understand this is our lunch program. fourth graders now know this is what the school meal looks like in detroit. eighth graders now our 12th graders and hopefully they know when they are going on to college they would have had the experience of eating healthy food. so, it's really about constantly and continuously educating our children, putting the matters before them and using the various resources that people like the produce providers and the department of education provides to us to the kids get used to seeing the items on the trays. >> you talk about getting the best value for produce on the plate waste which we hear a lot of concerns about. and again it would cost my life watching certainly my friends and i would have met once and

twice myself dumping things out. i don't think that's new that kids do that, but could you talk about how a little bit more about how you are working with the rural communities to address the concerns and challenges that have been raised >> yes, thank you that is a good question. first of all, we do -- we are closer to the school districts to try to limit to that and i think the best way to fight that is serving a appropriate appetizing prepared fresh fruits and vegetables that someone actually wants. as far as the rural schools are concerned about is a particular challenge as an example we serve coke filled wyoming which is about 153 miles, excuse me about 180 miles from salt lake city. 127 families in that community if we get fresh fruits and vegetables every week and take

some experts believe could effort on their part two we have assisted them in the educational piece so they can provide the same level of education and fresh fruit availability as urban schools do. that's one example. another is pinedale wyoming. have you ever been in accidents and easy to get to. it's out in the middle of the beautiful country. it takes a ride on three separate trucks to get their head when hweget produce on a wo them. so the produce can be distributed to schools but it does take an extra expert either on organizations like mr. clemens o were to help underpin the small school districts. >> i don't think i'm going to have a chance to get into the issue that i want may be on the second round and the amount of time children have to actually eat which i know is an issue of

concern that we need to talk about, but i do want at this point just the first of all congratulate you on your convention. our staff was there and i know senator cochran and wine it sounds like you had a great convention. and i understand there were over 400 vendors have participated. congratulations on that. and they all demonstrated products that were compliant in order to participate all 400 have to demonstrate those that were compliant with breakfast, and jammed competitive food requirements. and is that -- is that correct? ..

>> >> how that money might not go into the trash can and but nutrition education which is very important for children to change their eating habits. >> i understand it is a good step forward to get 400 vendors that have already adjusted production capabilities to meet winter%

will graham rich fruits and vegetables is a good first up as we continue to work with you i thought that was very impressive as the first up about now let's turn to senator cochran. >> madam chair thank you for your leadership and scheduling this hearing we appreciate the participation of our panel of witnesses. i want to ask that the director of office of healthy schools a and child nutrition at the department of education what his experience has been with the use of tools such as the menu planner the you have created at the state level to implement real standards in schools throughout our state. what has been your challenges or successes you could share with the committee and the panel? >> thank you.

the biggest success is we decided in 2010 to come up with an aggressive schedule and in 2012 and 2013 to get training from our office in that has been critical for our small school districts to have the tools to implement the changes in the printed versions are coming but the challenges that we have had the complexity of the rules the expression used in mississippi sometimes they will appreciate is we feel like we're drinking from the fire hose sometimes for a 150 policy memos have come not to clarify regulations since 2010 that

is a challenge to get those and then decide how to implement them to get the training to a the school district and unfortunately we know our partners work hard and we appreciate those efforts but sometimes the guidelines cannot close to the deadline may be a few weeks or months before has to be implemented for the school year because that is difficult for us and we make our best efforts but sometimes those policy memos changes at the last minute or lowe's exemptions that have been beneficial but sometimes at the last minute it is hard to peg it with the purchasing cooperative sometimes years in advance bin to get the training out to the administrators. >> senator brown?

>> "this is it" an important discussion i appreciate you all to qualify the way you have. the testimony from all five has shown that history shows change is difficult if you use the short-term pain ms. wiggins and we have to acknowledge that but we also think that dr. wilson's comments about with lifelong eating habits for young people as they become older people how important that is. think you for all you are doing to get through this to make the change as you have fought through the detroit public schools also in mississippi. the first for dr. wilson went to mention the experience of cincinnati public system it was the first in the country that started a school lunch

program not government subsidized 2015 years ago. the food-service director told the she serves a 50,000 meals per day with a salad bars in have been increased for some patients with the breakfast program and to working with students while making it appealing to the students with a significant profit through the 2013 school year and how to replicate that success in other districts? >> i think it can be replicated if it has been in many others as well.

and physical education and they have the training class for that. so a lot of those that started early to get things rolling day could do it. in my experience in wisconsin and left the district four years ago i was in a small world district and fresh fruits and vegetables me just put a mandatory serve three colors. and increase of produce and fresh vegetables skyrocketed to be served in the appealing manner. also with the institute we bring a the 40 largest districts together and have these types of discussions but you will find out in dallas it works as well and las angeles so there are a good role models. also the web site called healthy meals and all these states that are doing these things that people can use because there produced with

the state and federal dollars and was way ahead of the day where those resources are available and ordering less how to lose procurement rules. >> ms. wiggins come to my wife a and i moved into the city of cleveland with the rates were the highest a few years running of foreclosure of any zip code. so we know the challenges of urban areas. we have also seen that cleveland had has been reined in the top two or three of many cities in the country with urban gardening.

and talk more about that and what the city school system has done to use urban gardening so translate this to what we can do in cleveland and around the country selling directly to the schools? >> one of the things that is most positive we did not try to do by ourselves by would reach out to the community partners one of the best is the eastern market to has access to farmers. also reach out to michigan state university and i would agree through their extension they provided me with farmers and agriculture professionals with that

collaboration we start to plan called the detroit school carting collaborative. i reached out to all partners in the city and educated the teachers that has been fundamentally important. we also created a used car in leaders in embassadors so the products could be taking care of. weaponry develop our gardens we assisted three beds to be used to go into the school meals program by a director of operations led the stoplights solid zucchini and yellow squash and tomatoes and they learned during that process and you wonder how we could reduce a plea to waste and get them engaged and you cannot be the

global school the can feed the class attended is shown to the other kids one of our biggest sources of pride is we now have a local restaurant who now uses that stoplight saladin we are getting support firework with cleveland and have visited several times to look at their garden program but it is the commitment to the new nutrition standards that make me realize it is nutrition and education with commutative involvement in student involvement to make this work. that is why i see the new standards. that is why we support what we try to do. >> senator leahy asked to put a copy with the usda

cuisine for members that were not here with the pumpkin squares in fronted you have come from vermont did we also think senator casey for the of the balls -- meatballs. we are eating well today. now senator? >> madam chair thank you for holding this hearing. let me start with you. your testimony was interesting a and candid it -- candid and honest like every member in the united states i visit a lot of schools, we all do it is the great place to get the honest assessment.

when i visit schools and open to questions these days over the last few years one of the common criticisms i hear from kids relates to the school lunch program. it may be about choices, or food and they don't want to each zero or they are not getting enough to eat. it seems whenever we do with all of our good intentions if we cannot sell it to kids we're fooling ourselves because it will go on their plate then it will go to the trash. here is what i worry about. i worry we have thrown so much at schools, and that we

will get to a point where participation goes down that schools will back away from the program and at the end of the day what we end up with is the pork kids eating the school lunch program because it is free and reduced and those kids who from resources will do something else am i missing something? am i off base? >> you have just summarized many of the concerns our members across the country have expressed. we what school meals to be appealing to all students we have to feed all students because we dylan them eligible for free and reduced meals to have any stigma attached and as i mentioned members across the country have worked very hard i was the early adopter

in cincinnati to make changes early and often to cultivate community partners but that is still a challenge to assure that they are appealing to all students and with some flexibility is important to ensure that students continue to come to that cafeteria we will encourage them to make healthy choices but operators need a little fox -- flexibility to ensure other students participate in the program. >> as each witness testified today it just occurred to me how different the places are that you come from. there is nothing like detroit in my state. i say that simply because it is of bigger city.

it is hard to describe. it is not like many of the communities site visit. ms. wiggins, would you agree one of the things we might be missing%e=> i am understand your question as a former food service director at ann arbor michigan with 3 percent free and reduced either through organization or community engagement to put items on the tray. what you are missing please understand that school meals is not welfare it provides direct benefit to support education for all children. those children you are worried about i also have paid children but those are the working for the and the airport or the soon-to-be

pour that bring in the junk food to the cafeteria. those kids whose parents cannot afford to give them money every day are the ones with their heads down on the table missing lunch. those are the kids now i can embrace with community eligibility it allows me to bring more revenue into my program so that i could support the new nutrition standards i have a per-capita spending because i am also a business person of $1.98 per kids but now my purchase a patient went up 60% i had more money available now per-capita is around $3 we have to be savvy about what redo and i had to make food that was more appealing but it did

not cause difficulty. i am not concerned on about the kids on the urban streetcorners. we take a kid care of them but i am concerned where it is 40% in that is the reaso¥pj-f we reauthorize the program to take care of all of children teach rightsç is not any more you need or different than the number of poor children in happily show west virginia or american reservations day are small with the same problems minors is magnified because i and bigger but the programs before you now not only a good start the necessary to talk about beating all children.

>> thank you very much. >> thank you medicare. ms. wiggins, when you have conferences one of the things that has bothered me so much as a dramatic increase of type two diabetes that we have seen. is that a subject that comes up at your conferences how your efforts can help to stem the tide on this and? >> i appreciate that question. it comes up in our district through the will this policy we can implement new standards will use the asexual this type two diabetics some of the education leaders are just as is concerned the new standards.

it is not just a school lunch ladies but the issue we all need to be concerned about. >> that is a subject that the direct action of your work of the health of our children. >> i agree. i was truly interested run the secretary of the army came before the body to talk about how the kids are so obese and i was shaking my head. that that made me work harder to implement the new standards you have to be a savvy food-service director to use all the tools to and percent of my food comes from usda commodities. >> my fred, the senator had to preside over the senate that one of the concerns he has is over equipment needs

that you will need are there things that will help you with that process? are there things we can do to help? >> i will briefly tell you with the training in of the equipment is an issue. there is a lot of infrastructure san schools that don't have coolers or freezers. as people begin to erode to feel children updating your equipment derek king new equipment is a need. we used to having committed france years ago and it was wonderful because you could get lace pieces of equipment and now it can be universal to steam, a pate, roasted is just one piece so that is definitely needed.

>> mr. clements one of the things you do is to leverage the purchasing power to get the best deal for everybody. how you bring in your local farmers? i am from indiana and one of the proudest moments for farmers is to seek their products used to serve meals to their kids. how do you bring that together? is that from purchasing groups that you buy from? have you bring that as local as possible? >> we have had good success with local farmers and we have relied very strongly on agriculture to connect with local farmers to purchase

through the you deprogram. there are challenges. we have many small farmers whose struggle sometimes with the cost that their food is safe for a vulnerable population with very few large farmers who can meet those requirements and the irony is as we have seen the of farmers' market increases of mississippi polls produce away from the school lunch program so it is a struggle every year to find products that we can afford with limited reimbursement but the state as department -- an agriculture department. >> within confines of the safety the more options we provide the ag community that they could send produce

a and as i said talking to farmers one of the great moments is to seize their own high school and middle school making their own kids safe and healthy. think you for your efforts. >> at this point i am asking the senator to take over his chair i need to speak on a bill that i will come back so at this point we have senator who is next and i will turn over the chair. >> madam chairman this committee is working on reauthorization with the help the school lunch program and we all want our kids to be healthy to have to nutritious meals but there is a disagreement on the flexibility needed for the school lunch program. and i want to use the whole

grade requirement the new requirement check-in to provide for all cereal grain foods that are served they have to be 100 percent whole grain products all bread products, crackers, pizza, c rust, a taco shells shells, anything done with grain. 100 percent so to start with you, you represent the 55,000 school nutritionists that have to deliver this program on the ground? but someone to deliver every day to those children but then i will come back to the panel. >> related to sell whole

grain requirement would henderson to cover crayons had to be whole grain rich. all of us are there as 50% many are beyond that i will be beyond 100 percent but they will try this semester and i hope they like them but across the country there seems to me that a single item in most regions that some school authorities had a difficult time to find a product as sensible for their kids like tortillas, biscuits and grits, bagels, most districts would not have any trouble getting at 90% if there was an exemption in culturally significant item that they like that the

manufacturers have stepped up to produce great items whole grain costa has not been a problem but school for rude service directors sometimes have trouble accessing the products through courage distribution -- and distribution. >> is a bit to have the whole grade requirement exemption if the answer is no to not put flexibility then will you commit to make sure you have 100 percent whole grain products for every single lunch for the next year and beyond? >> as a card-carrying member of. [laughter] and to have my president year makes me proud. one of the things you had not talked about that you

should have is the benefactors who have worked very hard to formulate the whole grain products of the last three years they did not wait they started right away. talking at the school show last week they said they support the standards because they have to wait to reformulate icahn or change the standard dick and it will cost me money. so yes i am committed i have full grain pastas also the biscuits so we eat to those products. >> it is reasonable one and to present of all grain products for all pledges for the next year will meet that requirement? >> the answer is yes. >> no flexibility? >> it is all relative.

the usda. >> but i am asking what about the exception for a school that is having trouble meeting the requirement? shouldn't there be flexibility to allow them if they can get the whole grain processor? we may not be able to serve so whole grain product with a deeper sense of the time? should we have that flexibility in the program? played a short response. >> if it is reasonable, yes, sir. >> speaking for food service administrators from annual conference also from the person i would be happy to see some flexibility there is a dozen good example is the official was with us recently to talk about the whole grain biscuits then they realized it was a carryover from last year so

while we do have the acceptable product we do worry about participation next year because it doesn't have the same taste or texture or feel so we do support some flexibility is. >> you already answered affirmatively of the us you had something else? >> there is miscommunication because we just got information that old grade rich means 50 percent so there is misinformation. >> that one hedger percent has to be at that threshold so we are clear on that. >> there is flexibility right now. >> only four pastas. >> correct i am from wisconsin but i live in mississippi. we don't want to serve whole grain grants. fix that. there is the ability to use grants that is not counted

to the grain product. >> see you think there should be flexibility? iraq from a scientific standpoint a nutritional standpoint we need to go hundred percent. >> no exceptions? mr. muir? >> then you would commit to have an edge represents no matter where you go or what you eat no matter what restaurant that is a lot of hard jeb? >> was doing it for years ago. >> this is out of my area of expertise with fresh fruits and vegetables. [laughter] experience that several districts came to me two years ago to sayñr we have -- we cannot find whole grain

flour. in delivering it and they are proactive. and from the wrong perspective that is the minimum requirement that we should all be meeting to solve the obesity problem. and with those that are struggling reasonable exceptions are not? >> stayed the course no exception. >> you feel you could accomplish the same thing and would 100 percent of the of grain products? >> yes. >> i appreciate all of the panelist. >> thank you.

for hosting says terry i am worried about the obesity epidemic. the food research to 31 million students is the important investment so this discussion is invaluable. update statistics are staggering one not of three kids are now will be sore overweight. think about that. that is the extraordinarily high number we have schools sam preschools and kindergarten where 20 percent of children are obese. so we have an issue to a lack of information or lack of this understanding or lack of standards or lack to healthy food access and that is why the debate is so important. according to the american heart association $250 billion is spent in 208 billion loss in

productivity and direct medical cost. also staggering hunker in our country one of the five kids live in a household the struggles to put food on the table as 70 percent of teachers report kids coming to school hungry so the hot meal at school may be the only deal they eat that day we need to invest by investing in the food they eat. the $2.92 that we currently invest in to the free school meals is not enough after labor and utility costs only about $1 is invested in the actual food and it has been reported for these tertian for the dairy and grain reedy to invest in additional $0.35 per real i hope we can fight for this. i wish the senator didn't leave but of course, kids like the non whole grain

that is what they prefer their like sugar even more. to give the child the choice sugar or fruit they will pick the sugar. the tastebuds love it but we have to be the adults you just don't give them the foods that they want but to teach them how to eat well for their whole lives and that takes leadership and determination and creativity of the of the fact you told your district pick the three colors when i was teaching my children when there were four or five or six down in the colors and they loved that because i said steamed vegetables as children they don't want butter or cream or cheese. they eat fruit at every meal since they were a baby they were introduced at every meal they prefer it.

but these kids are not getting healthy foods at home but refined carbohydrates like a burger and french fries of course, they prefer that that is what they have been fed. we have to do more. i feel yes it is easy to have flexibility people like the brits but let's not serve refined foods at lunch but push them to eat something healthy that makes them healthy to reach full potential. when the kid is so obvious he does a far reaches full potential. he cannot concentrate or is made fun of with low self-esteem he or she does not reach full potential so i am grateful you have thought outside the box like the one to back off. let's figure it out.

figure it out. i am worried about the goal to rollback requirements to serve healthier foods. is that managers statement? is that the goal? period not to hold back the requirements but we fully support the increased quantities and varieties of fruits and vegetables to be offered and all of us are encouraging to select fruits and vegetables to prepare in the attractive way to make a wide variety available. we support 50% of the grains been old greater may be between 15 and 100 but our students do not see these foods outside of school. we also have students that go through the of wind take it because they have to then don't eat it then they go home and not have a meal and still be hungry.

>> kids will eat if they are hungry. i do not agree. if my son could choose his lunches candy and cookies but he is so concrete he will put -- eat what i put on his plate i do not agree a hungry kid well taken an awful aura of vegetable just because it is not their favorite they will eat it. if you offer low-quality food they will prefer a low-quality food. >> we're not offering low-quality food we are meeting the calorie requirements we are eliminating trans fat in the saturated fat requirements id reducing sodium. we will be on board with the requirements that with into effect july 1 this is about allowing students time to catch up. you don't turn their taste buds a round on a dime in we

are encouraging them to take healthy choices. >> okay. i think we need more money in this program do you? >> yes. >> good. during the authorization i support the 35% increase rather than 6% does that help to achieve your goals? so i'd like you to help us do that. you are the advocates of experts we have to inform congress to dollars $0.92 is not enough. whole fruits and vegetables canby affordable as we increase access but i can tell you with the low-quality vegetable who prefers esteemed green beans over key and? everyone nobody prefers decade isn't version they

are more tasty and delicious so focused on how we get the fresh whole fruit in vegetable but it cost more it is cheaper to serve the chicken nuggets but if we have roasted or grilled it is more healthy but it does cost a little bit more so please help us to achieve that goal to inform congress how important a little bit of money and i have other questions for e equipment but there is the grant program we had in the past of a bike to reinstitute i had a bill to do that it is not a lot of money 35 million of creance so they can serve the fresh fruits and vegetables. he did not here earlier but it would be saving 200 billions per year it is a

huge strain on the economy senator? >> take you very much. i appreciate you being here and i was on the school board's seven years to understand how difficult it is if you are in the trenches. some of you have figured this out but we have a problem because the vast majority of colleagues have not figured it out. i had visited with a bunch of people like lunch personnel over the past year who are very frustrated. of things i hear about is the waste and expense anna and the unfunded mandate.

the annals of the kids been hungry. is great you have it figured out to some extent betta bunch of your colleagues haven't. mr. muir as mentioned with the testimony you fruit sid vegetables is subject to floods or chairs for two shang cost based on the growing season how do you handle the supply when they're out of season. >> we work with the school districts to help them have day annual calendar so we steer them away from things we already know like a production cycle in the price will go up. and in many occasions if there is a weather event in the price spikes we

immediately notified the school districts to make a substitution under the fresh program when their prices are posted, led we kidvids we can see us spike it will go to the substitute product so we don't spend $20 for something that is normally eight. we do that with all districts. >> your farm source is fresh from around the world for your customers how to work with school authorities to work by american provisions that required those processed locally to the maximum extent possible? >> the complete online system throat dod we cannot postpone domestic items it is very regulated and

difficult to make a mistake. with a a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. we can do it during the school year. >> who else would like to answer, as some of you have been doing this for awhile are you seeing reduction of obesity in your children? >> yes. have been doing it for a while. [laughter] but i also notice i have better eating habits also we'd need to consider an exercise in but you will get

overweight but those better eating habits i was impressed when my kids popped for the apple over the potato chips. i don't happen para bolt the evidence but i can tell you supplely to waste i have not experienced it that much is in detroit. there are other things that will help us or the people that are responsible with new training requirements. in the aisle level of education among the people who deliver the program are not equal. i have the business background and i understand but the small districts districts, people don't have of the skills so i respect of this authorization myth

that authorization you have given us. >> don't miss understated by very supportive but we do have a problem with your colleagues not understanding has to be fixed and think it has to be tweet to make it as effective but the commons that you made miss wiggins cannot do is to just focus on this. it is not the only answer you mention exercise, that has to be a huge part of a also. thank you for being here. >> thank you madame chairwoman i appreciate all of you for making time. the issue about standard is important and one that most of us hear a lot about

not being eaten or tossed aside for standards that create a significant burden on school systems as well i have heard from the administrators in south dakota that say thou higher cost of food had to meet usda standards does related in a financial loss even employees so they could meet their financial obligations. as you look at this issue we have to remember there is no federal law of the commissioner policy to be considered a gold standard in not to be changed that our responsibility is to approach this mission with open mind and the spirit of cooperation to not be unduly influenced for those who support current standards. of what to do direct a

question with an issue a little specific to those in south dakota i have heard from students and parents and school administrators and food service managers about the impact these standards are have a but there is a particular letter to talk about one from the 200 students from the learning center in south dakota and they want to have traditional foods that are served once a month but because of the inflexibility of the new nutritional standards, they cannot do is that so how do we work with the reauthorization to ensure they receive healthy the atrocious meals while allow wayne flexibility to meet these types of requests? especially in areas of indian country and other members as well.

>> with the school districts around the country we are surveying a diverse student population in my own district there over 120 languages spoken in some of the importance of their own evening harry j. is important and but i would hope during the 2015 authorization recut look at that to offer reasonable flexibility to allow all the fruits of their culture in the school meal program. >> dr. wilson and schools getting adequate amounts of technical assistance to successfully implement the requirements? >> sans we put the cart before the horse because

there is no requirement for your educational level. it does not make sense to have any educational requirements that all. i know of some districts that are in trouble but part of the problem is not that they don't want to with the person leading the program is not able to. you can make all the rules you want but if you don't understand that does not help. it is too bad you have to require it the district still do that and i worked at a small district of the 1700 kids. so we decided we would have

to do something about that. so that it is nothing new. we did recess before lunch chit as a huge impact kids don't worry to get out to get the soccer ball so there is anecdotal evidence why things are happening but i don't think we have checked out what is occurring and with those professional standards redo the to have an opportunity for people to be educated. but in the nursing home situation you are required to have a registered dietitian oversee your program for i am not saying every district needs that but the small other

syndromes in every rural county have to have somebody that comes in and to help with the new plan the horror purchasing. there is a way in our district to increase participation in my superintendent loved it and then to put better standards in place it is doable but i am just beginning his chase didn't take a few years to see the outcome of moving forward. >> ms. wiggins? >> i am sensitive with ethnic preferences i am from detroit of large hispanic and metal is stern and lithuanians isn't -- you

cannot serve healthy but black people really love collard greens and fat but we have changed it since it impacts our health and we have black eyed peas in in sweet potatoes and corn bread but they are all from of the guidelines of usda. it is not like mamas. [laughter] but it is the awareness it can be eaten. fate q. for being here. they q28t levin for chairing the meeting while i was speaking and coding so let

the proceed the be all of your input as we resolve the challenges to support our schools to make sure children get what they need. and i mentioned in the first-round, of the concern from the food is service directors the amount of time children have to eat and i hear it after they get through the line they have a couple of minutes. i know this gets into a broader question of districts in how to define lunch, but can you tell us more about the issue and the impact whether or not

engaging school boards sort of local leaders to find solutions? >> time to eat lunch is a serious concern. . . we do address in conferences, in webinars and other types of

material that it's really a decision we can have some influence on and try to educate school administrators about the importance of time to eat lunch, but and, of course, the which we have no immediate m-pack -- impact. >> i know there's some desire or some areas have done or are talking about pilots were children are eating breakfast in the classroom, other options and so on. we have some things that hopefully we can do to help support you, and 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 someone. and i know in kentucky, your home state, that kentucky was

nearly 100% compliant with all the standards last year. i want to congratulate you as being an early adopter and the work that you've done. when we look across a state like kentucky with a lot of rural communities, we see harlan county, lisa sims in davies county, talking about the successes and implementing standards, you know, they indicated they don't see challenges or they wouldn't ask for a waiver and solar. yet we have different things in different schools about what's happening. what is different in these schools from other schools that we're hearing about? how do we help the schools out having challenges but also recognizing the schools that are saying they are moving ahead? >> a lot of it comes down to the

support staff, the school nutrition program. i'm very fortunate that i have a number of people on my staff that are assigned specific duties related to her school meal program. i can tell you that since a healthy hunger-free kids act went into effect i have had to take weinke decision, the court made it up procurement menu plan and split that into too. i think mr. clements alluded to the complexity of the requirement. select one person who now concentrates on food procurement audit writing specifications and ensuring that students have an opportunity to sample new products and i have another person that works on the menu planning and does all of that and takes care 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 school nutrition

directors may be equipped with the skills necessary to handle many changes that have occurred and the complexity of those changes. i'll tell you a story. i attended food-service required erector training in frankfort not long ago. small groups and there was a new director there. he spent a food-service tractor just two years, and he formerly worked at the state department, and he told us can he said i'm so overwhelmed because he's trying to do everything himself, i focus on one thing this year and i will focus on another the 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 a relatively short period of time for many of us spent it sounds like would be helpful if we could make sure your the resources you need as well so you weren't having to pick.

finally and then i'll turn it over, let me just ask mr. clements, and again congratulations on what you've been doing in mississippi. very different than detroit, then kentucky and utah, the difference -- wisconsin certainly, but we are seeing positive things being addressed. i know that mississippi -- i know your work on healthy school meals has really made a difference. in children's lives, literally them living longer. you should feel very good about that. you implemented the nutrition standards for competitive foods well before the national policies were developed. so wonder if you could talk about the successes and challenges you have had at the state competitive the food standards and health benefits that you've seen as a result of the changes. >> we've been very fortunate in

mississippi, in many respects with the legislation and the state board of education who are both very cognizant of the challenges we have such as obesity in our state. as far back as the 1980s, the implement an aggressive competitive food policy, nothing to be sold on school grounds and now before any school lunch program. we don't have what most schools have as farce a la carte sales. most pickup the complete reimbursement meal to purchase any extra. some of those of the militiamen years. in '07 our state legislature and board addressed it again. we put in very stringent lending policies actually are closely aligned to the smart rules and our schools did see some lost revenue but we've also seen some very good things going on with inventing.

we sing very good complianccomplianc e but it took them a little while to get on board. there was a transition period but like i say we been very fortunate our schools have adopted those and they have accepted them gracefully. >> senator klobuchar. >> well, thank you very much, madam chair. sorry i it something else this one and appreciate that hearing is still going on. and i think this is something so important to all of us. i know something you're passionate about, something we care a lot about in our state, and i supported the healthy hunger free act -- healthy hunger-free kids act in 2010 with a pass on a bipartisan basis, overwhelming support. our schools are a critical part of in this effort and we've made some progress. we haven't been able to say that for a few years but we made some progress and we are stabilizing the rate of childhood obesity in part because of the reforms that have been enacted. i think we all know that there'e

is work to be done. we know it's been acknowledged that change isn't easy and that preventing childhood obesity won't happen overnight. i don't think we should be rolling back or postponing the standards right now but i think it's good to hear what people have to say. also coming from a ag state, i wanted to talk a little bit about the issue agenda the chairwoman has been involved in purchasing local and regional ag products for school meal programs. i think it's a good bridge between nations farmers and their children. according to the usda farm to school status, minnesota school district supports 12% other school food budget on local products. could you provide maybe, ms. wiggins, symantec how you see this practice as a long-term strategy to support kids and also the agricultural community? >> i'm happy to report the

detroit public schools, 22.5% of our produce dollars are michigan grown produce. i think that long-term strategy means that we have to develop some supply chain. 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 i know the local farmers. they said they come here in detroit now. i'm going to get my food into your schools. and i said, i can't. i need one school. i said i have 131. so the way the we handled, i had to disappoint people i grew up with. but the way that we handle getting fresh fruits and vegetables interschool at local, at the local level is we have to develop the supply chain. we will have to develop cooperatives. one of the think the state of michigan does when you talk about how we can help one another, we have something called an alternate agreement,

whereby i can provide services to those with small school districts, the one into the don't have the capability for the education or the equipment or even the time that i provide my services. i put those districts in with detroit public schools so when detroit public school kids get that 14 sent apple that senators are always bad to talk about, if those small schools were not with me, that apple would cost them 40 cents. so the ability to collaborate and cooperate is what's going to extend this program and allow us to add those important products. senator klobuchar, i just left st. paul, director of st. paul and the director of minneapolis yesterday, that 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 appeared more attractive. vendors -- manufacturers, 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 a so speed is one other thing we did, our agriculture extension service at the university of minnesota did a study and it doesn't surprise me because we see this with local product in general. people are interested in being part of something that's local. what we found in the study, there was a three to 16% increase in school meal participation when there was a farm to school program because i think -- i know there's been supply chain issues but i've heard about some of this that they didn't read remember if we can work this out it's not only good for the kids, it peaks the interest and the families interest in being part of his because they see it as part of the local community. just ask one more question here with my time.

of you, ms. bauscher. in your testimony, and a note earlier you talk about school districts that is the trouble find acceptable foods that meet the whole-grain richest has become a schools have taken provided -- advantage of that for the industry to develop workable products? >> i do not have an answer to that question. i know in talking to colleagues from around the country as recently as last week in boston, i've talked to districts to apply -- intend to apply for the way to talk to districts that don't have any further waiver, including my own. sometimes it could be districts that are adjacent to one another. i don't know how many have actually applied. >> i think would be helpful to know because there is that possibility out there when people try to be as flexible as possible. mr. clements, just one more

question. outside of the new standards how do 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 schools alive and watching what was in some of the vending machines that some of the kids were in afterschool programs like she was and what they were eating. so what methods of evaluation have been used in the vending machines for the smart snacks program? >> again back to '07 way policies in the state workers similar to the smart snacks. we at the state agency provide the service to the school authorities and if they consider the products we make evaluation for them and they don't have to have any technical skills. we have that expertise, our office. we publish a list and if the individual products they can use the information. of course, the online calculators that if they want to go through they can use those. we encourage that but we're happy to provide that service.

>> thank you very much. >> take you very much. senator klobuchar, again thank you for presiding over this committee today. >> thank you for holding this hearing but i think it is a vital issue because of the 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. what we've done, food of the increasingly popular across new york state and vary from not-for-profit, very from not-for-profit working to bring locals who to underserved areas to large not-for-profit serving hundreds of businesses and institutions. for example, new york city fulfill national wholesale food market an internet access throuh direct sales individuals. my team works closely with different food of the organizations and has helped to secure grandson of services to advance the nation. bridges between port ports of fd

haves and have ties to school attrition in the work that you? >> food hubs are playing an integral role in getting locally grown produce to schools and other end users. the big issue of course is that a lot of these local growers are what is known as a micro growth and not commercial so, therefore, they don't have a distribution as center. so the food hubs play a critical role in getting produce from the farm to the end users. in addition to nonprofit food haves, sometimes they also have some challenges in distribution. and we don't have a successful nonprofit in our market, food hubs, but we have stepped in as a distributed to act as the local food of and working with the school district, we can choose local growers are they can choose them and we act, they

deliver to us and we deliver out to the different schools rather than having a farmer in his pickup truck or whatever trying to deliver to 40 schools all on one day. so they're an integral part of the success of the local food program, and the local school, farm to school program. so the funding and the processes to assist those food hubs is important. >> do you have any ideas on how we can expand that? if, so for challenges is getting access to the fresh whole fruits and vegetables from her local farmers. what is suppose ideas you can offer that we could expand food hubs? we tried to use the program as aggressively as we can in supporting grant applications and getting access to capital but do you have thoughts on how to expand the program? >> i don't specifically. i know it's a big challenge, and

we need to continue to work on that. we also have to keep in perspective although local fruits visited way to go, it is not, it cannot solve all of our problems. we still have to rely on the commercial sector, the commercial farms who can produce large quantities of product, supply our schools and other sources. for instance, a large school district goes to a small graces we want to produce, they can wipe them out in one day. we have to put that in perspective but i think we continue to work with the food hubs, working with usda, grant monies, civic and developed a system to its a new distribution system that is new to all of us. so it will take time to develop. >> similarly, this pastor usda allocated $100 million for technical assistance to help me with a new nutrition standards.

more than half the money has been returned to the usda. that means that states about and utilizing the resources that were available. for example, in new york state 46% of the implementation funds are not being used which it was $2.5 million. dr. wilson, could you speak to what you're doing to leverage the usda dollars to protect tactical assistance to schools to meet the new nutrition standards be? the institute is a national institute. so we go nation wide and wouldn't technical assistance in new york city right now. it's coming from our budget, not theirs. but that has been an issue. there are ways for the states can contract with us to prevent outside contracts from a number of states, using their money, to contract with us to do specific things in their state. mississippi did it. he had some foundation money, so possibly interstate and did colin occurring all over the state because scott want that to be done in his state.

california do the same state. california do the same thing where we did 10 culinary trends all of the state, just concentrated to train trainers so they could go out and train. that states can use that money with us very easily and get us to put our experienced trainers on the ground to help them make sure that the standards are being met. there's all different topics that we offer from hands on to online, from culinary to financial management to use those funds. >> thank you, madam chair. >> thank you very much. and thank you to all of you. this is really an important snapshot i think of how program is working across the country, the challenges that we face do we want to work with all of you to continue moving forward, build on best practices, be able to support and tackle the things that we still needed tackle richard at all schools are successful. because the bottom i were 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 the habits that we all a

choir as we have to dig and certainly change always is a little difficult but in this case it is well worth the effort. so thank you again. we look forward to working with you on the reauthorization of the child attrition program, and i would say to colleagues and any additional questions for the record should be submitted to the committee up to five business days from today. that's 5 p.m. on wednesday, july 30, and the meeting is adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> here's what's coming up on c-span2. up next, a subcommittee is testament about the future of the u.s. postal service. then we will show you the school insurance once again. >> each decade or at each period of time during this migration people who were studying at the social it is primarily for assuming it would be over. they're looking at what was the

impetus for and they were thinking the economics of the north were the main impetus. yes, that was a precipitating factor but ultimately wants the door had been opened by the north because world war i was beginning of it, world war i was a time when because the war in europe immigration have essentially come to a halt and all of the workforce, the workers that were feeding the steel mills and the foundries and al all of the factors of the north then had no labor and these northern industries then begin looking to the south for cheap labor. that meant they had to go to african-americans and again tried to recruit him to go north. >> here's a look at some of our primetime programming this evening across the c-span networks.

>> here's some highlights for this weekend.

>> here's a great read to add to some real us. c-span's latest book "sundays at eight," a collection of stories from some the nation's most influential people over the past 25 years. >> i decided to take it because whether it's an allusion or not i don't think it is, it helps my concentration. it stopped me being bored, stop other people being bored to some extent. it would keep me awake, make he didn't go on longer, prolong the conversation, to enhance the moment. if i was asked would i do it again, the answer is probably

yes. i would've quit earlier if possible in order to get away with the whole thing. easy for me of course. not very nice to my children to your. you. not very responsible if i say i would to authenticate the. the truth is to be hypocritical of me to say no, i never touched the stuff because i didn't know, everyone knew. >> soviet union and the soviet system contained the seeds of its own destruction. many of the problems we saw at the end begin at the very beginning. i spoke already about the attempt to control all institutions and control all parts of the economy and political life and social life. one of the problems is that when you do that, we did try to control everything, then you create opposition and potential dissidents everywhere. if you don't all artists that you paint the same way and one artist says no, i don't want to think that way, i want to put another way can you just make it into a political dissident. >> if you want to subsidize

housing in this country and want to talk about it and the populist agrees that something we should subsidize, then put on the ballot sheet and make it clear and make it evident and make everybody aware of how much it's costing. but what you deliver it through these third party enterprises, fannie mae and freddie mac, when you deliver the subsidy through a public company with private shareholders and executive who can extract a lot of that subsidy for themselves, that is not a very good way of subsidizing homeownership. >> christopher hitchens, have five are a few of the 41 -- anne appplebaum and gretchen morgenson in c-span sunday at night now available with your favorite bookseller. >> a house oversight and government reform subcommittee held a hearing recently assessing the future of u.s. postal service and examining new innovations and the postal delivery industry. witnesses testify on behalf of the postal