in my home state of virginia dorothy mcculloch has been focusing not only on ending childhood hunger and on improving access to virginia's locally grown commodities. this helps children, supports farmers and strengthens local economies. the reality is the negative effects of school nutrition are preventable. we still have a long way to go but their r there are positive signs of progress through the implementation of the child nutrition programs. the program for women, infants and children, the wic program has consistently proven to be a cost-effective investment that improves the nutrition and health of low income families. the program has led to healthier infants, more nutritionus diets better health care for children and subsequently higher act semesteric achievement for students. for some students, their only access to nutritionus meals is at school, through the school meal programs and we know the children and teens can consume up to half of their total calories at school. during the average school day in 2011 more than 31 million school children ate school lunch and over 12 mill