Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Keep Kids Fed Act.

I want to thank Chairman Scott for his steadfast leadership and determination to work to get something worked out to help ensure that our school meals are available to as many of our students as possible.

The school meals provisions were an effective response by this Congress to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools, children and families were disrupted as this deadly disease raced through our country. Congress acted to make sure that we provided flexibility to ensure that no child would miss a meal that they would otherwise have received in school.

Why is that important? Because Congress has long recognized that hunger and learning do not mix well, if at all. This isn't some theoretical or academic debate. I know what its like to be hungry and in school. And I am saddened that decades after I went through that experience as a student, many other children still must deal with that reality each and every school day.

Food is not a luxury. So hearing that the USDA COVID waivers that had allowed millions of kids to stay nourished were expiring was an emergency for me. And I know the Chairman shares that sentiment.

Frankly, it has been hard to sleep thinking of what happens in communities like Milwaukee when families find this lifeline cut off arbitrarily even while the pandemic that spawned these provisions, continues.

The reality is that hunger and food insecurity did not take a break during this pandemic. In fact, reports indicate it got worse. Hunger doesn't take a summer vacation even though our schools do.

It shouldn't have taken all of this to get us to agree on this: Feed our kids so they can concentrate on learning and being kids. These waivers have done a great deal to help us achieve that and I hope we can continue to work to ensure that we can take the great lessons learned about how to effectively reach and nourish school children during this pandemic and use them to put in place permanent provisions that will ensure that all of our children can go to school and focus on their education

That includes taking up and passing bills like the Universal School Meals Program Act which I have joined with Rep. Omar in introducing that would provide the most cost-effective and inclusive model for ensuring all students have access to nutritious meals during the school day without facing barriers such as stigma or burdensome paperwork.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise in strong support of the House Amendment to S. 2089, the ``Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022.''

Today's bill is a matter of urgency.

If Congress does not act now to pass this emergency legislation, millions of children will spend their summer hungry. Millions of children may be forced to spend their school days not learning and growing but feeling the pangs of empty stomachs.

Hungry children cannot focus their attention on their studies and learning. They simply cannot thrive while trying to survive.

Free and reduced breakfast and lunch waivers are lifelines for families across the nation.

I think of the struggling families in my district who have battled against the COVID-19 pandemic for the past two years.

Families who now face record high inflation rates, skyrocketing gas prices, and the rising cost of food.

Families who are stretching dollars to pay for rent, to get to the doctor, to keep the lights on.

Families for whom every penny counts.

I think of how these families must have felt when they learned that the aid on which they had relied to feed their children was suddenly going to be taken away.

I imagine they felt helpless.

It is in our power to feed these children.

The ``Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022'' would allow schools to feed children throughout the upcoming school year. This bill would extend free meals and snacks for children during the summer months, and it would provide enhanced supports to Child and Adult Care programs--all without disrupting the budget.

In the summer of 2020, hungry children were provided with more than 10 million meals via the federally supported Summer Meal Program.

195,000 children were fed.

195,000 children were given apples, sandwiches, yogurts, juice boxes.

They were given the opportunity to enjoy a summer free of hunger.

That is reason enough to act.

The ``Keep Kids Fed Act'' would also increase reimbursements to school nutrition programs for both breakfast and lunch meals.

American families are not the only ones struggling to put food on the table amidst the current economic crisis.

School nutrition professionals have expressed deep concern over the impacts that supply-chain issues and inflation have had on their ability to provide quality meals to their students.

With the end of pandemic-relief nutritional aid fast approaching, and the cost of labor rising, some schools could see their yearly budgets decrease by 40 percent this year.

School cafeterias cannot produce meals out of thin air.

They need our help.

The House Amendment to S. 2089 would increase the reimbursement rates for the 2022-2023 school year by an additional 15 cents per breakfast and 40 cents per lunch--money that our nation's schools desperately need.

This bill would not fix the inflation problem, lower the cost of gas, or unclog the supply chain. But it would put food on the plates of hungry children across America.

That is why I rise in support of the House Amendment to S. 2089, the ``Keep Kids Fed Act'' and urge my colleagues to do the same.

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