by intern Emily Stephenson
This morning the Senate Agriculture committee met to discuss Child Nutrition reauthorization. Yesterday’s USDA announcement about food insecurity in the US set the tone for the hearing. But as Blanche Lincoln herself said, “the meals provided must not just fill bellies.” Very promising sentiments from a woman who not only has a lot of sway in this issue, but also had previously only focused on addressing hunger. The hearing also discussed in great length the connection between hunger and obesity. They tied the issue of obesity and poor health to everything from impaired learning to national security. Looks like they really do see this as an important issue!
In fact, every one of Farm to School, all members of the committee agreed that facilities must be remodeled to accommodate cooking “real food” (Debbie Stabenow’s words) and nutritional education had to be brought up to snuff—all components of Farm to School.
The hearing was very promising, you can watch it on the Ag Committee’s site, where you can find it under today’s date (Nov. 17).
