>> many families do not qualify on the of assistance are struggling financially. as we continue to raise prices, some will no longer be able to afford to eat with us and the financial losses pay-fors our program to cut staff so they are impacting the community. sparks that growth that led to huge declines in a la carte sales with an estimated loss of $700,000 in revenue. items such as fresh to go south have to be taken off the menu because the small amounts of meat, cheese and salad dressing did not meet the sodium and fat requirements. our sub sandwich was a very popular item but to me the rules would shrink their sites can remove the cheese and switch to whole grain bread. now we sell very few. we've also had opportunities to serve diet soda sugar-free gum and coffee. we've chosen not to serve these

items but it just shows you have these regulations do not always make sense. despite our best efforts to make meals more appealing we are struggling with student acceptance. we are particularly challenge and whole grain enriched tortillas, its gross and other specialty items that appeal to our students. every student must now take a fruit or vegetable whether they intend to eat it or not. as a result we've seen an increase in good food going to waste in our schools. we promote fruit and vegetable choices with free samples and i tried stickers to encourage consumption by forcing students to take fruits and vegetables turns a healthy choice into a negative experience. encourage and educate instead of require is always the best option. olathe's meal programs it operates on a tight budget. after labor supply costs come insurance come utilities come equipment and other expenses we

are left with just over a dollar to spend on food for each lunch tray. imagine going to the grocery store with just $5 to spend for a family of four including milk, fruits, vegetables and the healthy entrée. could you do that every day of the week? my involvement in the school nutrition association of kansas has allowed me to witness the accomplishments and challenges of colleagues all across kansas and missouri. some districts have overcome challenges under the new rules particularly those with high free and reduced price allegedly which provides higher reimbursement and participation and access to federal grants and programs. however, many districts like olathe are struggling with reduced revenue, declining participation in higher costs of preparing meals. we don't have access to many federal grants. that is what it is vital to allow flexibility to all programs to be successful for the students and families we serve. is a lot of negative press about

school nutrition programs about flexibility. to me this is hurtful. we are only asking for flexibility to ensure all school nutrition programs are successful, have faith in the knowledge of all school nutrition professionals that we know what's best for the children. they are our children and grandchildren, too. thank you for the opportunity. i will take any questions. >> yes, dr. hassink. >> thank you and good morning. like to thank chairman roberts and the members of the 20 for inviting me here today. as i was introduced i'm dr. rafe al-issawi, and i'm the president of the american academy of pediatrics. whose mission is to obtain the optimal, physical, mental and social health and well being for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults. it's an honor to be here today

speaking that is subject to which i dedicate my life's work, childhood obesity and the connection between nutrition and health. the foundations of child health are built upon ensuring the three basic needs of every child, sound and appropriate nutrition, stable, responsive and nurturing relationships, and safe and healthy environments and communities. meeting these needs for each child is fundamental to achieving and sustaining optimal health and well being into adulthood for every child. early investments in child health and nutrition are crucial. a tying three from pregnancy through early childhood is one of rapid physical, cognitive emotional and social development. and because it is the time street in a child's life can set the stage for a lifetime of good health and success in learning a relationship or can be a time of toxic stress when physical mental and social health and learning are compromised. micronutrients such as iron and

folate have demonstrated effects on brain development but are commonly deficient in pregnant women and young children and the united states. these deficiencies can lead to delays in attention, motor development, poor short-term memory and lower iq score. one of the most effective investment congress can make during the prenatal to school age period is to support the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, or wic. and i think the committee for its strong bipartisan support for wic over the past four decades. wic helps give children a healthy start at life by providing nutritious foods nutrition education and breast-feeding support. children who received wic have improved the outcome come increase rates of immunization, better access to health care through a medical home, and participation may help reduce childhood obesity. wic has played an important role in promoting breast-feeding and

improving breast-feeding initiation. we recommend that the committee seek to find ways to promote breast-feeding initiation and continuation even further into wic program including by increase in the authorization for the breast-feeding peer counseling program for $180 million. wic as a targeted intervention for mothers and young children with impact secular long-term in nature including improved health outcome, educational prospects and prosperity of our committee. as a pediatrician i've seen firsthand the importance of nutrition and child health. when i start my practice and shouted weight management 27 years ago i was seeing adolescents. when i retired last october i had a special clinic for children under five with obesity, and we were seeing infants. these children were already showing the effects of the increased body mass index on blood pressure and measures of blood sugar control. we saw obesity related liver disease and four-year-olds and in children with prediabetes at

86. today our children are experiencing an unprecedented nutritional crisis resulted in a double burden of food insecurity and obesity. for connecting factor for both is poverty. the highest rates of obesity are found in people with the lowest incomes. at increasingly the picture of food insecurity in children is that of a child was with overweight or obesity consume it for quality diet. good nutrition is not only an essential component of chronic disease prevention and treatment, but also treat the effects of chronic hunger. wic is one innovation to address the double burden. families school shelter communities and pediatricians play an important role in shaping healthy habits. wind in the middle of an epidemic you cannot keep doing what you've always been doing. as pediatricians, parents, community leaders and policymakers, we have an obligation to ensure that we provide our children is healthy and nutrition and that we model

healthy eating as adults. good nutrition in childhood sets the stage for lifelong health and just like we vaccinate to protect against illness, we could also vaccinate against chronic disease by providing pregnant women and children with nutritional assistance and breast feeding support. as we so what our mothers this weekend, i urge the committee to the mothers and children's nutritional needs first. our children's health simply cannot wait. thank you and i'll be happy to take any questions. >> thank you very much. we will proceed with questions. i know that you will be returning in just a moment, so thank you to each of you for your comments. we very much appreciate and dr. hassink, thank you very much for reminding us all what this is about in terms of children and the health and the stake we have an children being healthy and having a chance to succeed. mr. goff, i wanted to start with you, because when i think of

west virginia, you of all kinds of schools, you have rural, urban, and yet your state is 100% compliant with the new meal standards, including smart snacks. looks like you are ahead of the game anticipating things. i want to congratulate you and the state for that. and i'm wondering how you are able to get to help your schools in the state to be able to achieve the goals. and then secondly when many schools who rely on the oligarchs fails to supplement their budgets, and we understand that budgets for schools but a change to help your item doesn't seem to have impacted your school. so how do you help schools to achieve and how is it you able to do including à la carte sales in a way that didn't hurt your schools? >> thank you for the kind comments. welcome we adopted the iom

standards in 2000 after they were released and we put together a very comprehensive accommodation plan. as far as bringing the schools on board, we went through the black eyes everyone else is going through with hungry free kids active we created a listserv or we could communicate with each food service director through the internet with a push of the send button. we issue guidance memos. we met with principals groups, we met with superintendent groups. we give presentations before boards to get the word out and let them know just why the standards were changed and why we're doing what we were doing, and the science behind. we created a website called smart food for parents to educate parents of all the changes. so we vetted very comprehensive implementation plan and we

staff at the state agency level in preparation for all the changes as well, as first grant writers and registered dietitians and things of that nature. and our automated system where we have electronic technology system point-of-sale system that's integrated throughout the entire state. they just need to know one system. our reviewers going to the schools your pages have to monitor one system. many of the concerns that mr. lord spoke of we don't experience in west virginia because the direct certification and community college ability determination is done at the state agency level. we notify the schools of that information. are free and reduced application is online. so we got a lot of the problems with, that we've experienced with paper application which is basically become obsolete in west virginia. as far as à la carte we in west

virginia, we shall come into our cafeteria they dedicate a unitized know that meets of the male pattern is fully reimbursed by the federal government regardless of whether it's free, reduced price or paid come we just hope it's in the child's best interest. we also worked to have salad bars put in place. by not offering à la carte sales that makes the point-of-sale a lot cleaner. there's not a lot of activity at the point-of-sale so that lends itself to increased accountability as far as logging and claiming the meals. we've never had an issue with common as far as the revenue goes on à la carte sales. you get a unitized meal which you get the full price of the patent and then you get the full federal reimbursements we get both revenue streams in west virginia. and à la carte, that was never an issue for us to.

>> well, it's very impressive what you've done, and look at the automated point-of-sale and a statewide eligibility so that the schools don't have to be focus on that and it moves with the channel. i just think it's really something that we need to look at and how we can save the cost of the paperwork for schools and families and still achieve things, so congratulations. mr. riendeau, we've had a lot of bipartisan support over the years for our summer meals programs, and we want to continue that. we know we need to strengthen both the congregant a non-congregant model. i am concerned that we create more flexibility. in michigan we submitted a request for a waiver for the congregant requirements and in fact unfortunately it was denied because of the current restrictions when a waiver can be issued its i wonder if you might speak a little bit more about the need for flexibility in terms of this am and what's happening in terms of

communities whether it's where children need our what's been called grab and go or other kinds of models come why this is important? >> sure. and thank you for that question. in our case at dare to care we serve both urban and rural counties and i think that's where the difference between the two models is most stark the vast majority of meals we serve are served in jefferson county, the home of legal and carbon county. it's a place where kids there are plenty of sites for kids together in the summer sites with programming and activities that the kids want to be a part of. the kids arthur and it's easy for us to get those meals to those kids, had the kids consume the on site and allow us to comply with the required requirement of the program. in fact, we have come our model is based on a 6000 square-foot kitchen invested in to build two years ago that provides a 1000 hot meals a day now and takes

those meals to those sites. the program works very well. where the need for flexibly comes in is in our rural counties. our other 11 counties are rural, very rural. frankly, they just don't have the communities centers, the facilities for kids together. even if they did have those there's a transportation issue. these kids are spread out. any of them are living in hollows, small communities. they are dispersed across those counties. into some of you don't congregate. what would like to see is the ability to work on the ground in those communities with the government and business leaders in those communities to come up with unique partnerships and innovative programs that are tailored to meet the specific needs of those individual counties. and i think if we could have the flexibility that we are talking about, i'm very confident that we could reach many, many more

of theof the kids in the. as i mentioned in my testimony, 90% of the kids in the state of kentucky who are eligible for sfsp don't get it because there's either no stipend to go to they can't get there. >> thank you very much. >> ms. jones cindy thank you for your help. in our traversing kansas and enjoying school lunches and school breakfast. if you provided with some that word again, flexibly, what changes would you make? >> i would allow us to go back to the 50% whole grains so we are able to add some of those items back with -- back at the kids enjoy, such as whole-grain biscuits do not have much flavor. i don't know if any of you have tried them.

crackers, they taste like sawdust. just some of the simple items just like our children, they love chicken nuggets. all kids love chicken nuggets. now the coding of the chicken nuggets, they no longer like the flavor. just simple things we we could do with that. i would go back to encouraging kids to take fruit and vegetables, which is what we want to do in our district if we keep hearing about, it's just a half a cup. but we have 29,000 students in our district. that's a lot of half of cups. if two-thirds of those kids eat the fruits and vegetables that still 10,000 half of cups that we throw away and overdue that's 1.7 million have the cups. in our district we want the kids to eat either fruits and vegetables. with unlimited fruits and vegetables. we go into those schools all the time, encouraging them, giving them little stickers because we want them to try their fruits

and vegetables but because of all the tight budgets were having right now, this may be something we have to do away with with our unlimited fruits and vegetables. and advocate for those students who want to eat the fruit and vegetables to lose that opportunity because other students are forced to take in and just throw them in the trash. also i would like to be able to make the decision whether to raise the prices for our meals. i think a lot of our students are leaving the program because they can no longer afford to pay the meals right. i was visiting with a little girl the other day and she said that her mother now makes you choose two days a week to eat with us because they can no longer afford to pay those costs. i would like to be able to do that to. >> we have just been joined by the whole grains champion of the senate who has a bill to exempt

that standard, and i will give you every opportunity to discuss that john but at any rate let me also ask you in my travels in kansas there were some schools doing well implementing the standards. they seem to be the schools with a lot of resources. in your testimony you mention that some high, freedom and reduce price districts in kansas have also overcome challenges. is there a way to characterize that districts are having a hard time, or does it a sunday the reason i bring this up is that i think the distinguished senator from michigan and i attended come to put it to rural and small town schools, smaller schools, and goodness knows they

have problems with a lot of things, but i'm not sure i'm getting this exactly right. is the way to characterize that districts that are having a hard time, or does it vary based on the individual community and how they are doing what they're doing to accept the program et cetera, et cetera? i know there's been a lot of talk about training. company get at something i don't know if it's called the attitude of the community or attitude of the district or whatever. not much choice in this regard but help me out. >> what i'm seeing districts like my own we have a lower amount of free and reduced. so a lot of those kids are making that choice to bring their own lunch, where if you're at a district that they have a high free and reduced, those kids pretty much steal it what they are being served. i was actually speaking to a director from a larger district and he said that because of the

revenue that he's losing with the students, he will end up in the red for the first time and this was around his 10th year of being there. something that is a lot of the problem is those schools that do not have the high free and reduced, we don't have the ability to get a lot of grants that are available to those high about the free and reduced schools. in my district we have a centralized building. we have two registered dietitians on staff. we have to pay for all of our costs, benefits. we even pay indirect costs to our districts to help pay for the utilities and the custodial staff at the schools. little school district usually have someone within that school so they don't have all the extra costs that larger districts have. plus many of them have high free and reduced. so that not only did not have the expense that we have come they are able to bring in more

revenue. >> you have given me the exact reverse of what perhaps some of us may have as a bias, and i truly appreciate that. that's exactly what i was asking about. i have some different questions you. i would say to my colleagues but i do want to get to senator donnelly who i think is next then we have senator hoeven. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to thank all of you for being here. mr. riendeau, i know you're based in louisville i want to let everybody know that you also, dare to care george washington, crawford harrison, floyd and clark counties in my home state of indiana. we are grateful to you for the. and wanted to talk to you for a second about something that i know you've heard about as well, and that is the air you serve just outside of it is scott county, which is just to the

north of where you serve. we have had a devastating hiv outbreak there and drug epidemic there. the county also is one of the highest food insecurity rates for children in our state. and i was wondering, in your mind, what is the best way to reach those kids? to make sure they had enough to eat, to make sure they stay in school, and hopefully stay away from drugs as well. >> think you senator. and yes i live just down the road from scott county and i want you to know, personally i share your pain with what's happening there. it's horrific. you know i guess i think in my mind what's happening there sort of points to the larger issue that's before the committee with this whole reauthorization. that is, investing in our kids today can prevent some issues down the road. we heard that kids grow up in a food insecure environment are

going to have all kinds of issues, and as they age up to findtheywill find themselves with less options for becoming productive self-sufficient members of our community. i'm certainly not an expert on drug addiction or hiv, i would have to guess that there is a very close correlation between the levels of food insecurity that you see in the county and some of the problems of folks are facing with no alternatives to turn to you. i think the best way one of the great ways that we could better serve counties like scott would be going back to the ranking member's question about flexibility, giving us the ability to do the programs to be able to provide summer food to kids in those rural counties where the current model and the current regulations may not fit so well. >> which ties into little bit to my next question which is in some of the rural areas and you serve and the rest of the state and the country, to our pack a

backpack program for kids on the weekend and such. i know you help to work without also. do you think as you look at that we would be able to reach more food insecure children if those meals in that program were eligible, free reimbursement come as another funds come from private sector for that? >> absolutely. that program is come in our case with the dare to care and serving our world countries, that is when the programs we do use to reach kids in a row counties. because when kids are congregated at schools it's the one place we can get nutritious food to them to take over the weekend. currently we funded the program entirely with private donations so it's entirely privately funded program but in my mind it's a great public-private partnership because we are leveraging those private dollars to address an issue that we currently can't address with federal dollars.

and so the answer is yes i think if we could find a way to involve, find a new revenue source that would allow us to provide more backpacks that would certainly have a positive impact on our ability to reach those kids. >> thank you. dr. hassink, one of the areas of concern for me with food insecurity is also the general obesity that has occurred in children and the increase in diabetes type two. as you look at that and as we look at that going forward, what more can be done to teach about healthy eating lifestyles, and how to prevent things like diabetes type two? because they can be so debilitating? >> well, thank you. certainly we as pediatricians are seeing the rise of type two diabetes and younger and younger children, something we never thought we would have to deal with as pediatricians.

i think starting early with early healthy infant nutrition and transition to solid foods include feeding practices healthy habits for families at home, to start out right is essential. many of the children who have severe problems in adolescence with their health, with type ii diabetes have already by age five have had obesity. so early intervention that means a failed education. stronger links with the health care system and food and providing information about the programs, providing education understanding was available for those family in the committed i think would help get them off to a good start in 2007 when we wrote the expert guidelines for obesity we considered all children at risk for obesity in this country. and we've trained physicians to do preventive counseling for everyone because of this

problem. >> thank you very much to the panel. thank you all your work to try to help our children and our families. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you senator donnelly. senator hoeven? >> naked mr. chairman. i appreciate you holding the string today thanks to all of the witness. this challenge, you mentioned some of the difficulties in complaint with the lower so instead of an also the 100% whole grains requirement. what can we do to help in that regard? what do you think the solution is? >> we just want to make sure that we don't go forward with target to for the sodium because right now we are we are able to get by with struggling but we are able to meet those requirements. but if we go on target to mac that would mean we are serving therapeutic sodium levels. there will be no flavor to the kids foods. i just received an e-mail from my director living in a that the

student surveys are back from parents and many of them say that their children to love eating with us because there's no taste to the food. that is a concern. and if we continue on i think that will be even a larger concern. >> celesta i included a provision that actually kept the whole grains at 50% rather than having 100% of the whole grain, or the green products having to be whole grain enriched. and now i've introduced legislation with senator king this was bipartisan legislation, senator king from maine, that would both keep us at the lower sodium level but not go to the next target level. and would continue the provision that 50% of the grain products have to be whole grain enriched. is that something that you think is workable and addressed it would find workable?

the few other states would find workable? >> absolutely. >> okay. and that touch on just for a minute issues as far as the competitive requirement for the à la carte menu. we want to make sure that the school lunches are healthy and the kids are eating them. and it would also want you to go to continue with the à la carte and i understand there's issues in terms of what you can provide à la carte. >> right now we would like to be able to survive is on à la carte that are also on the reimbursable meal. because right now you're to look at each à la carte item. if it's on a meals you can compare that throughout the week and fit into the require but. so it's much more difficult to give to get an item to serve on à la carte. so we would like to be able to do that. if we can sew it onto reimbursable meal it should be healthy enough to serve à la carte. >> again, just some flexibility. >> absolutely. >> thank you.

mr. goff, i'm glad to hear of your successes in terms of implementing the program in west virginia. and certainly flexibility does not mean a rollback of the nutrition standards, but it again making sure that we have healthy meals and meals that kids will be to come and that our schools are able to make their budgets. could you tell me how many other schools have applied for an exemption from the 100% whole grain requirement speak with well we did the 100%. the whole grain enriched requirement back in 2008. the only thing that's affected our schools and i was intimate across the board in all schools come and schools are not having a problem with it. the only thing that is really touched in west virginia is as relates to foster, that's only because -- pasta. is because we have schools are having trouble getting the product. spirit and that's the point. in some cases whether it's pizza

order to use a pasta we talk about whole grain enriched, it's not just the bread and so forth but it's all these other products. and some flexibility is helpful and that's why, you know i've advanced 52% whole grain enriched it is not a number, you've got quite a few schools that have applied for exceptions. wouldn't some flexibility be helpful to the near? >> well, i can't speak for the schools. i think that when you're looking at granting waivers, my fear of that would be that it would give industry a pause to come on board and to make their products more available at a similar time. we have lots of waiver request we were implementing some of our standards as relates to professional standards, or even competitive sales. i think if you have a good standard that's in the child's best interest then you hold a

standard. i certainly can't speak for a state like kentucky but are participating in west virginia in our school meals is the highest it's ever been. our breakfast participation is starting to exceed that of lunch. so i think in west virginia, and we have cooperative purchasing groups that pool their efforts to get the product i think were on the right track there. >> so you don't feel there needs to be any flexibility, even though you have schools that have applied for exemptions? >> well, i don't know the numbers of those schools. >> twenty-two. >> twenty-two schools out of and we have about 700 so certainly that's cause for an exemption, a waiver until the product can become available. but it was my understand it was more related to pasta. >> i understand in some cases it relates to pasta or tortillas are some of these other products. and that makes sense them if they are healthy and the kids will eat them, i'm about the.

no, mr. chairman, but the current dietary guideline recommendations allow for some refined grains as well. so if we allow in the guidelines, which is for all americans, why wouldn't some flicks about in that regard make sense for our school kids, to? >> i understand. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator stabenow you had additional questions? >> id. thank you. i do. and thank you again to all of you. i guess i'm trying to put in perspective, you know, i realize we are making changes in the last five years and the behavior is always hard to change where we are serving a process and move in the direction, all of us wanting to be more focused on health and wellness, and we all know the benefits of that. we know sometimes change is hard. i do it is a i've visited a lot of school districts, some very

creative what you take the vegetable and should put green peppers and onion in the tacos and the kids don't even know they are getting it which is great. and others when someone says no the government says you have to eat broccoli. so there's a different reaction depending on how things are presented, if we want to be in the creative process of that where we are sneaking in and kids don't even know beans are vegetable, right? but, mr. goff i would ask you about specifically the exemption for whole grains my dear friend, and i really mean that, from north dakota has been very passionate about this, but yet out of thousands of schools across the country, we've had only 350 requests for waivers on whole grains. antipathetic perspective, 350 requests across the country there are 900 school district in michigan alone one request in

north dakota, forward request in kansas. and so i'm wondering have you received 30 many requests at this point? again, why would you believe your schools would not be asking for the flexibility of the waiver that we put in place at this point? >> well, i couldn't even number. we have received some requests, but it's mentioned in talking with the cooperative purchasing groups that comprise our state that the requests is for pasta. it's because the product is not readily available for them to purchase and it has something to do with, that that particular product has trouble maintaining its consistency. so until more about ipod hits the markets come some of our schools were struggling with it. but as far as the whole grain enriched require that we put that in place since 2008. students are very accepting now of what they call the brown

bread. so i think it's a good standard you think we just need to wait for industry to come up to speed. >> i wondered also there are differences between larger and smaller districts and some that have the temerity allegedly, and as mr. jones was saying, just larger districts, smaller number of students that qualify for free and reduced lunches and so on. again come in west virginia how have you handled that with a larger district where there's a smaller number of children, sort of the economics of that for schools? because i'm sure that is different. how have you handled that in terms of districts where virtually all of the children are qualifying for free and reduced lunch versus a district where maybe less than 50%? >> as far as -- >> as far as a sort of the economics of funding and so one

because that seems to be one of the concerns is that large districts are losing money because there are fewer children being reimbursed on free and reduced lunch, and other children are not buying lunch. >> that's a great question, and we anticipated those types of things before we implemented community on the jupiter like i said, the first year that they piloted that we were not selected so we get our own version called west virginia universal free meals. we knew if we just come if we just selected nine districts or however many we did select and said like, said that you now cannot breakfast and lunch at no charge, if we didn't fundamental change something it was going to create a problem with their budgets. so we work in conjunction with our state legislature and we passed senate bill 663 called the west virginia fee to achieve act. what they did one of the provisions of that act is it

realigned breakfast with instructional big we were offered breakfast at the worst possible time as most schools do come at the start of the school, when the bells are reading -- arriving the buses arriving late, kids want to talk to their friends. we have a state law that they could not compete with the start of the school. it has to be offered at a breakfast in the classroom breakfast after first third or breakfast after the bill or some combination of the. and every school and every grade level, and what it's done that in conjunction with community college ability our breakfast participation is starting to exceed that of lunch. financially speaking, that's very good for the programs because the margin of profit even look at the federal reimbursement versus the cost to produce a breakfast, a margin of profit is higher on breakfast than that of a lunch, plus it's the most important meal of the day. now we have the naysayers in the

beginning that for example, a teacher that did what the food in a classroom will not go to bat for the program and are actually promoting the program because they can see such a huge difference in test scores student attentiveness, reduced parties, fewer trips to the school nurse fewer behavioral problems. it's really changed the way we are educating kids in west virginia. we have one school district, districtwide, mason county, their breakfast participation last year averaged almost 90%. 90% of the children in that school had a breakfast on a daily basis. and that's how we have done it through the economies of scale the cost to produce one or breakfast or want additional breakfast is, the cost is not that significant come by the federal revenue coming in on that one or breakfast is substantial. >> thank you. i know my time is up, mr. chairman, so thank you.

>> senator boozman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i apologize to you and the ranking member for running back and forth today. this is such an important hearing in such an important topic for arkansas and the rest of the country. i'm on another subcommittee though that also is very important that have to do with violent crime, gangs and things like that. which against all these things go together. and so like i said, i apologize running back and forth. mr. riendeau, again i know these things have been discussed already in things, but it's such an important thing for arkansas. our summer meal participation has increased in recent years and is very, very import. however, we struggle to reach children in rural areas. can you talk a little bit about the challenge that you have experienced with the meals program? and then also based on your experience can give you some concrete recommendations as to what we can do to overcome some of the challenges speak with sure.

you know as i said before we have dare to care served both urban and rural counties and public and much like your rural counties, particularly in indiana, you know, the distance between the king and reduce is so great and the communities are so small that it's just very, very difficult to find locations where kids can go and congregate, unlike our urban counties. there aren't robust boys and girls clubs with all the programming and lots of things that these kids want to get too. so the challenge is how do we find a way to get these kids access to summer food based on the reality of the county in which they live? so we've looked at several different options. one of the thoughts we have is we actually have a bus a school

bus now and we are actually look at the possibility of preparing meals in our community kitchen, loading those in and putting them on the bus and take it out to the role counties and simply driving to the hollows where you'll have a community of 20 families, and dropping the meals off. and letting the kids consume them as the bus goes away and goes to the next community. the challenge with a model under the current rules is unless the kids, and less we stop and the kids eat the meal on the bus come and we count the number of children, we can't be reimbursed. so the sustainability of the ball is doubtful, and that's kind of a challenge that we're facing which is why one of things would like the committee to consider is allowing us to look more flexible models in those counties like i'm sure in arkansas would probably benefit deeply from the. let us look at those and make those eligible for reimbursement

as well. >> mr. goff, he you mentioned that you start your program in 2009 and i think that's right okay. and i think that our state's new to flexibly to do as they feel like is best. can you tell us they saw 2009 to now, what are your obesity levels? have they gone down or have they find out how they continue to go up? do you have any knowledge about the? >> we adopted the standard in 2008, and speak at what's happened as a result? >> i think our obesity rate has leveled off that i don't have the data, but i do know that our school environments are healthier. in west virginia hunger and obesity live side-by-side. and tried to put a finger on the culprit, we've done everything in our power to provide safe and healthy learning environment for

our kids. >> and i agree with that totally. the only reason i mentioned that is because this really does go together with a whole host of other things. so we need to address this you know, and like i say, i don't disagree that you all are doing a great job in the sense of doing what you like is best for your kids. but it is, i think one of the problems we run into is that we feel like if we just do this or that in this particular area we will solve our problem. and the reality is with p/e and lots of other things afterschool activities, all of that goes together, and if we don't get involved in will be in trouble. is jones you mentioned in your testimony the importance of flexibility. can you talk to us on little bit about specifically the kind of flexibility that you would like or maybe in some areas or to? >> sure. just like we talk about our à la

carte, the fact that we had to take a healthy choice off like a sub sandwich with turkey and cheese, that doesn't make sense to me. that is a healthy i think it would like to have that flexibility to put those type of items back on our à la carte items. having the decision to be able to raise the price of a meal or not. i mean, that should be determined by each district but what they feel their involvement would be able to pay for. we want to be able to keep those kids into those cafeterias just we can't serve them nutritious meals if we don't have been eating with us. so those are the type of things we wanted to look at. like i say, with the fruit and vegetable we really want to encourage our kids. that's something we've always thought is very important but we do not want to lose out unlimited fruits and vegetables because we can't afford to do that anymore. >> take you. thank you, mr. chairman.

>> dr. hassink, i apologize that we have not paid more attention to you especially with all of the work that choose but i would have if i had more time. >> thank you. >> but you may come as a typical situation where a chairman of committee is answering the question that i would've asked you, you made some excellent points with regards to a lack of specific nutrients at a specific time, and a detrimental effect that dataset on attention and development, short-term memory, iq scores, everything that everybody strives for. but if they miss the boat, they miss the boat. i'm not asking you to expound upon that research. i think it is self-evident, but it want to let you know how much

we appreciate your coming and your statement. i am now moving to the conclusion of our hearing this afternoon. yes, it is this afternoon. thank you to each of our witnesses, and to the first panel as well, for taking your time, your very valuable time to share your views that are related to the child nutrition programs. these testimonies that have been provided today are very valuable for the committee to hear firsthand and to keep on record. your thoughts and insights will be especially helpful as we undergo the reauthorization process. and to my fellow members, i would ask that any additional questions that they may have for the record be submitted to the committee five business days from today, or by 5 p.m. next thursday may 14. the committee now stands adjourned.

[inaudible conversations] >> this morning to house foreign affairs committee holds a hearing on the sacrifices and its treatment of religion my in other words, in the territory it controls in iraq and syria. live coverage on c-span3 begins at 10 a.m. eastern time. later, he said on wednesday security hearing on border security and using technology to

patrol border region. you can watch that live and kicking eastern time on c-span3 c-span.org. >> the new congressional directory is a handy guide to the 114th congress with color photos of every senator and house member plus bio and contact information and twitter handles. also district maps, fold out map of capitol hill and to look at congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies and state governors. order your copy today. it is $13.95 plus shipping and handling through the c-span online store at c-span.org. the u.s. and china recently negotiated an agreement governing trade and civilian nuclear technology. the senate foreign relations committee held a hearing on the agreement and what it could mean for the economy and national security. tennessee senator bob corker chairs this 90 minute hearing.

>> the committee will come to order. i know have a vote at 2:45 so we'll try to get through opening comments and your comment and maybe come back and begin the questioning. today we begin to exercise for statutory responsibility responsibly congress requested to review agreements between the united states and foreign nations related to cooperation with civil nuclear programs. we must attempt the political economic and security aspect of this agreement weighing the risks and benefits. in doing so we must dig beneath the surface of the group to expose and thoroughly examine those issues that cause concern and engaging such an agreement. we all we also should consider this agreement could potentially impact u.s. strategic interest in the asia-pacific.

the agreement before us represents a continuation of a relationship that original began in 1985 with a congressional approval of agreement between the united states at the people's republic of china concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy. it expires on december 30 2015 with a new agreement civil nuclear cooperation. without it the civil nuclear cooperation we have will cease. at the time of submission and the 1985 agreement, china was engaged in activities that call significant concerns related to proliferation, lack of safeguards, lack of export controls and condit and the agreement lack key assurances to alleviate those concerns to in passing a joint resolution expressing disapproval of the agreement, congress required several certifications to address its concerns prior to the issuance of any export licenses pursuant to the

agreement. the challenges in relationship with china and its actions relevant to the required certifications were such that certifications could not and were not made by the administration until 1998, 13 years after the agreement originally entered force. some of those concerns still exist, maybe to lesser degrees but they still exist. the agreement before us now continues civil nuclear cooperation for another 30 years. i am glad the administration should share the concerns raised by this committee last year about civil nuclear agreement that extended in perpetuity, including the termination of this agreement after 30 years. thank you for that. it is right that agreements on this consequence should be periodically reviewed by congress to ensure that they continue to be in the national interest. notably, and not present in the current agreement is provides advanced consent to enrich u.s. supplied uranium up to 20% u-235

anti-reprocessed u.s. obligated material. i'm sure i'm not alone in questioning this change of relationship. i hope that the administration can adequately explain why it is india's interest to allow for this type of activity using u.s. supplied or obligated material. the president's transmission lever to congress states that this agreement is based on mutual commitment to nuclear nonproliferation, but i have some misgivings. the commitment may not be so mutual. it will be incumbent upon the administration to expediently allay concerns raised by our members. the nonproliferation ss the statement, also known as npas required to be submitted to congress with the agreement identified several potential issues of concern. according to npas china strategy or strengthening its military involvement the acquisition of foreign technology as well as

greater civil military integration, and both elements have the potential to decrease development and costs to accelerate military modernization. this strategy requires close scrutiny of all end users ideas technology under the proposed agreement. further, the npas says, china's provision to pakistan of reactors beyond chasma one and two is inconsistent with the chinese commitment when it joined the nuclear suppliers group in 2004. finally, according to npas china update its regulations and improved action in some areas but proliferation of all chinese entities remains of concern to state-owned enterprises and individuals have been sanctioned by the u.s. on several occasions for transferring proliferation sensitive dual use materials and technologies. congress should also consider china's record as it relates to

missile proliferation. the 2011 director of national intelligence worldwide threat assessment said north korea and entities in russia and china continue to sell technologies and components in the middle east and south asia that are dual use and could support weapons of mass destruction and missile programs. the 2014 state department compliance report said in 2013, chinese entities continue to supply missile programs in countries of concern. the united states notes that china made a public commitment in november 2000 not to assist in any way any country in the development of ballistic missiles that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. concerns persist about chinese willingness and ability to detect and prevent illicit transfers. i would like the administration

to specifically address why congress should feel confident that china will prevent illicit transfers going forward. concerns aside, the u.s. has realized benefits from the current agreement. economic benefits include an $8 billion sale of four nuclear reactors by westinghouse in 2007, still under construction today. we also aren't infallible inside from lessons learned into construction of the ap1000 for reactors that will cause domestic construction to be more efficient, timely and cost less. china has also developed and articulated stronger nonproliferation policies and export control regulations. it will now be up to congress to determine if the concerns about the agreement are outweighed by the benefits. if so, we should approve the agreement without delay. if not but the concerns can be mitigated, we should work diligently to find grounds upon which we can support the

agreement. if the concerns cannot be alleviated we should disapprove the agreement. all this is to say that we have a difficult task ahead of us but one that i know we can approach seriously and with the best political, economic and security interests of the united states in mind. i think our witnesses for joining us today to begin this examination and look forward to working with them and their colleagues in the weeks ahead. again, thank you for being here. >> mr. chairman, let me thank you for conducting history but it's a very important hearing of the relationship between the united states and china come whatever most difficult foreign policy challenges. this week we're holding two hearings in our committee are clear this week will have a hearing on the territorial disputes in the south china and east china seas. seas. i'm looking forward to the drink i think it's a very important subject. today we will focus on the elements of u.s.-china relations with the recently signed

u.s.-china civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. current agreement as you point out is set to expire on december 30 of the shipping of aside 30 years ago by president reagan. it's interesting to point out the implementation of that agreement had to wait for 13 years because of the senate conditions on china's proliferation activities, and then because of the aftermath of the tiananmen square massacre. up front i want to indicate come and i am in support of the development of the nuclear power. remains a smart and effective way for the united states to achieving independence and to reduce our carbon emissions. u.s. nuclear cooperative agreements with other countries provide the united states a number of important benefits. first and foremost our the 123 agreement can help achieve our nonproliferation objected because we seek to uphold the highest nonproliferation standards in these agreements including ensuring nuclear technology and material are never misuse for military purposes. there will be an issue expect

recommend you want to explore the second is a good are critical for maintaining a robust nuclear industry. the enormous growth in china's nuclear power generation represents a major opportunity for u.s. business and one that have already taken advantage of. the reactors the united states is building in china already creating high quality jobs in the united states come including in my home state of maryland. ..