CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript

Interview

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Let's discuss what's going on with the Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa.

Mr. Secretary, thanks very much for coming in. And I read this report, and I said to myself, how could this be in the richest country in the world that so many millions of Americans, including so many million children, are at times hungry in our country?

TOM VILSACK, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE: Well, Wolf, it starts with poverty. And interestingly enough, a substantial majority of those 49 million Americans, many of them are employed. They're working part- time jobs, two part-time jobs, low-paying jobs. And the result is that they have a hard time at the end of the month being able to stretch that food dollar, even with the additional food assistance. So it starts with poverty, starts with unemployment, starts with a difficult economy. Fortunately those numbers would be substantially higher were it not for the SNAP program that the USDA is involved in.

BLITZER: What's the SNAP program?

VILSACK: It's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. People used to know it as food stamps. Part of the stimulus package was to increase financing for that program. The WIC program, which is Women and Infant Children, helps about 9 million people. The SNAP program helps about 35 million, and the school lunch and school breakfast program, again, over 30 million children.

BLITZER: But clearly something is wrong. Because you expect to hear about hungry children and hunger in Congo, let's say, someplace in Africa, but you don't expect to hear these kinds of numbers here in the United States.

VILSACK: Well, there's a difference. When we talk about hunger in those developing countries, we're talking about a chronic situation, something that's occurring every single day. Here in America, what we're talking about is during the month, you may have one or two days where there may be difficulties. And fortunately, most of the children in this country are sheltered from this. We still have a substantial number that we have to address. But adults are the ones who are making sacrifices so that their children can eat.

BLITZER: But there are children who are hungry.

VILSACK: There indeed. There are indeed. Roughly 1 million children are very low food security, which means that at some point in time during the month, they're skipping a meal. They're cutting back on what they eat or they're going hungry.

BLITZER: These are little kids?

VILSACK: These are kids anywhere from one-year-old to 18.

BLITZER: It's still just shocking, 1 million kids, at times, every month are hungry.

VILSACK: It is -- that's the reason why we were talking to the senators today about the need for additional resources in the school lunch and school breakfast program. Because that is one place where we actually do get youngsters meals, and we're going to try to improve the access to those programs, as well as the nutritional value of those programs.

BLITZER: What do you need as the secretary of Agriculture to make sure there is no hunger in the United States?

VILSACK: We need a growing economy. We need a comprehensive effort involving not just my department but lots of departments of governments and state governments. We need states to aggressively promote the SNAP program. They are the ones who administer this program through their human services department. We need simplification in terms of application process for involvement in these programs.

Sometimes our school lunch and school breakfast program have applications which can discourage people from participating. So we need simplification. We need additional access, and we also need, frankly, to increase the nutritional value of these programs.

BLITZER: Because the other side of this is obesity. That so many poor families out there, they can't afford to buy healthy food, so they buy unhealthy food. And as a result, there's a huge obesity problem for young kids.

VILSACK: There is. And it's a twin problem. Part of it has to do with the fact that we don't have much physical activity as we used to for kids.

BLITZER: In schools?

VILSACK: In schools today. You would be shocked to know that just about half of the youngsters in this country actually have physical educational opportunities in school. In high schools, only about one- third of high schools meet the physical education requirements and recommendations. So we've got to get more active. We've got to get engaged. And frankly, this is a wake-up call for the United States. It's a wake-up call for all of us to understand that there are food shortages in families. That this is an issue that needs to be addressed, as is the nutrition issue.

BLITZER: We're counting on you, Mr. Secretary, to fix it.

VILSACK: Well, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk about this because I think the more people are aware of it, the more the food banks will receive assistance, the more nonprofit organizations will kick in, as they have. The more focus we put on this, I think the greater the chances are that we'll reduce those numbers over time.

BLITZER: Good luck.

VILSACK: Thank you.

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