The “Policies and Priorities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service.”
Thank you Chairwoman Bonamici, Ranking Member Fulcher, and Members of the Subcommittee for the invitation to join you today to discuss the policies and priorities of the
I know that this Subcommittee is keenly aware of the value of the Child Nutrition programs - including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), the Child and
The COVID-19 pandemic has only underscored how essential these programs are. At the peak of the hunger crisis last December, households with as many as 30 million adults and 14 million children reported that they did not have enough to eat, with disproportionate impacts on communities of color.
To address the pandemic,
The reauthorization process you have launched provides the opportunity to step back and reflect on what is working well and how we can strengthen the Child Nutrition and WIC programs permanently. I am pleased to start the conversation with you today. In the Administration's view, the pandemic has exposed gaps in our safety net, highlighting the urgent need to shape more equitable and just nutrition programs for all Americans. In that spirit, the President proposed bold investments in children, nutrition, and schools, including more than
Child Nutrition and WIC: A Record of Success
Starting 75 years ago with the National School Lunch Act, and expanding and diversifying in the decades since,
*
* Science-based nutrition standards have had a positive and significant influence on nutritional quality over the past decade. Since meal standards were improved in response to the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, schools have made great strides in serving creative, healthy meals and children are eating better during the school day. A recent study in the
* The Child and
* These programs both promote and benefit from vibrant, resilient food systems. Through
* Summer feeding programs offer nutritious meals to low-income children when school is out, when children are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity.
* WIC is one of our most important and effective public health programs. There is strong evidence that WIC participation results in fewer infant deaths, fewer premature births, and increased birth weights--and reduces health care costs. It also leads to better health and academic outcomes for children and is one of the most powerful public health interventions available to reduce stark racial disparities in maternal and child health outcomes.
Administration Priorities and Key Opportunities
As the President's American Families Plan invest in our kids, our families, and our economic future, it doubles down on addressing nutrition insecurity, which disproportionately affects low-income families and families of color. The AFP invests more than
I want to talk about four areas we view as top priorities for action in Child Nutrition and WIC:
Tackling the summer hunger gap by expanding summer EBT to all eligible children nationwide. Summer has always been a hard time for children at risk of hunger. When schools let out for summer, typically fewer than 1 in 5 eligible children get meals through summer food programs. Put simply, far too many children lose access to healthy meals during the summer.
But we know how to solve this problem. Over ten years ago,
Research from these pilots shows that Summer EBT works -- it decreased food insecurity among children receiving benefits by one-third and improved their diet quality.
As part of the COVID-19 response,
For the first time this summer, resource-strapped families nationwide will receive EBT cards to buy groceries to make up for meals their children would typically receive at school. But we know that summer hunger won't disappear when the public health emergency ends, and neither should summer benefits.
The American Families Plan invests over
Expanding access to nutritious school meals by making it easier for to children enroll and simpler for schools to manage. Prior to the pandemic, approximately 22 million children ate free or reduced-price meals at school, but we know that some eligible children do not receive free or reduced-price school meals, whether due to stigma, not knowing how to sign up, or other participation barriers.
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a valuable tool to expand the reach of school meals in schools serving low-income communities. CEP allows schools that serve low-income families - where a high portion of children are eligible for SNAP - to provide meals to all students at no charge. CEP has increased participation in school breakfast and lunch, increasing children's access to nutritious meals while also simplifying administration for schools so they can spend less time collecting applications and lunch money and more time preparing and serving nutritious meals.
Currently, only 70 percent of eligible schools participate in CEP--most because of financial concerns--making it harder for children in need to access free meals. The President's plan provides more than
The President's plan also leverages data sharing, so that income-eligible children who receive Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income will be automatically certified to receive them. This reduces the burden on families that have already proven their income and on schools that don't have to process redundant paperwork.
Together, these changes would provide nutritious school meals at no cost to an additional 9.3 million children, about 70 percent of them in elementary schools. An estimated 40 percent of school districts that may be able to expand their participation due to this plan are in rural areas. We look forward to working with you to advance these policies.
Strengthening nutrition across Child Nutrition programs and WIC - to give kids a healthier future.
This is not to say that it's easy to change kids' eating habits (parents know that it isn't), that the standards and implementation timelines were perfect, or that schools don't face challenges to improving nutrition. But the future payoffs of even incremental changes are extraordinary. We are committed to science-based nutrition targets that have proven effective at driving better meals that promote health. What we must do is continue and complete the work, with schools and all those that support them, to get these pro-health changes to every family, on timelines that are realistic and reasonable, and that deliver meals that are not only nutritious, but that kids will enjoy eating. Changing the eating patterns of today's children is changing the eating patterns of tomorrow's adults - and the health and well-being of our nation.
With this funding, schools could receive financial incentives to adopt healthy practices that go above and beyond the required meal standards. For example, this could include doing more scratch cooking, expanding the use of local and culturally appropriate foods, reducing sales of less healthy options during the school day or increasing time for physical activity. Staying focused on what works,
Connecting more eligible women and young children to WIC and strengthening service delivery. Evidence is clear that participation in WIC drives better health for infants and supports more nutritious diets and better health care for children, all while producing higher academic achievement for students. Unfortunately, the share of eligible families participating in WIC has declined over the past decade; only about half of eligible low-income individuals were participating in 2017. The number of WIC participants continued falling at the end of 2019, and while it rebounded in some areas during the pandemic, it remained lower than the previous year even as child hunger soared.
At the same time, we see mortality rates for infants born to Black and Indigenous women that are at least twice as high as for infants born to white women - a tragic manifestation of systemic inequities. Disparities have also created conditions that result in.inadequate health care and higher rates of.overweight and obesity, asthma and severe asthma, childhood mortality and overall poor health. The Administration is committed to addressing these disparities. Thanks to the work of our community partners, we have a strong foundation to work from.
WIC participation rates among eligible Black and Latinx families are actually higher than average, and racial disparities in breastfeeding initiation have been steadily improving.
We face the dual challenge of boosting participation and leveraging WIC as a critical intervention for all children both to meet the immediate crisis and to support better maternal and child health outcomes for all families. The American Rescue Plan Act includes a historic investment in WIC and the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, which we will deploy to improve program delivery and increase participation. This effort will include a robust national outreach campaign to ensure that eligible families know about the program's benefits and offer new, easy ways for them to enroll. It will also encourage innovation to improve service delivery and increase participation and utilization of benefits. As these innovations and initiatives proceed, we stand ready to work with the Subcommittee on statutory changes that support and complement these efforts and ensure that the critical nutrition benefits of WIC reach those who need them.
Strengthening the Child Nutrition and WIC programs is a meaningful way to advance the President's priorities as they provide relief to struggling families, build and enhance racial equity, and create a better future. I look forward to our dialogue to understand how we can work together to advance them. Thank you for the opportunity to join you today.
Read this original document at: https://edlabor.house.gov/download/deantestimony051221&download=1
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