Child Nutrition

Floor Speech

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Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in support of my colleagues in urging the reauthorization of this act based on nutritional value and investment in this country's future and our young people.

Specifically, I want to take a minute to talk about the simultaneous issues of extreme hunger and obesity in this country and in my home State of California, which are nothing short of staggering.

Fourteen percent of people in California are food insecure. Twenty- three percent of California's children are food insecure. In my district, 14 percent of the total population is food insecure.

In the United States, three out of four public school teachers tell us that students regularly come to class hungry. Eighty-one percent say it happens at least once a week. Over 15 million American kids struggle with hunger.

On the other hand, American kids who eat school breakfast miss less school, get better grades, and are more likely to graduate from high school.

At the same time, there is a childhood obesity epidemic in this country. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

In 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. One in three children in California are currently overweight or obese, according to the Pew Endowment Foundation.

Research shows that children living in States with strong school nutrition standards are more likely to maintain healthier weights.

The estimated annual health costs of obesity-related illness in the U.S. is a staggering $190.2 billion, or nearly 21 percent of annual medical spending in the United States.

Childhood obesity alone is responsible for $14 billion in direct medical costs. Ironically, the Federal Government spends $15 billion every year on school food.

The work that we began with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 is having an important and positive effect on both of these problems at once.

School meal participants are less likely to have nutrient inadequacies and are more likely to consume fruit, vegetables, and milk at breakfast and lunch.

Low-income students who eat both school breakfast and lunch have significantly better overall diet quality than low-income students who do not eat school meals.

The school meal nutrition standards are having a positive impact on student food selection and consumption, especially for fruits and vegetables.

Few packed lunches and snacks brought from home meet National School Lunch Program standards and Child and Adult Care Food Program standards.

Children in after-school programs consume more calories, more salty foods, and sugary foods on days that they bring their own snacks than on days they only eat the afterschool snack provided by the National School Lunch Program.

In California, I am pleased to say that we have figured it out for the kids, for their parents, for the purveyors who provide all of this healthy product, and for the students, the school administrators, and rank-and-file staff who distribute these foods.

Over 93 percent of school districts nationwide have met the improved lunch and breakfast standards, certifying them to receive Federally authorized school lunch reimbursement rate increases.

In California, we exceed the national compliance rates with 100 percent of our schools currently in compliance.

These standards are going a long way toward decreasing the health costs associated with malnutrition for both hungry and obese children. We must double down on these efforts, not turn away from them. Our children deserve at least this much from us.

I look forward to working with my colleagues on this effort.

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