Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman and my classmate for yielding.

Mr. Chair, let me speak in favor of this important bipartisan legislation. The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is an investment, I believe, in our children's health and future.

This proposed legislation, let's be clear, does not change the underlying law. For the 19 years that I have been on the House Agriculture Committee, the school lunch and breakfast program has been and should be a focus of attention by the House of Representatives and the Congress.

Why?

It is because we provide the support for the school lunch and breakfast programs.

And why else?

It is because we want our children to have the most nutrition possible from lunch and breakfast.

In addition, we want to deal with issues of obesity and issues of allergies. It is important for a healthy future.

Now, let me say that I know a little bit about this. My family and I have been involved in the dairy business in California for three generations, since the early 1920s. Dairy plays a critical role in the nutritional diet of children as a leading food source for nutrients that are critical for development and growth. We must provide healthy nutrient-packed options that children will actually choose to consume, ranging from nonfat to whole.

Milk provides 13 essential nutrients, as has been mentioned, including three of the four nutrients of public health concern that involve calcium, potassium, and vitamin D.

A few months ago I visited the Fresno Unified Nutrition Center. Fresno Unified is the third largest school district in California with 73,000 students. They prepare 45,000 lunches a day and 15,000 breakfasts at 85 school centers. It is a big undertaking for this nutritional program.

What we know is that for many of the kids, the breakfast or the lunch they get is sometimes the best meal they get in a day, so, therefore, we need to be focused on this. Our schools must be equipped with nutritional school milk options. We must be available and flexible to new scientific developments that are made.

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Chair, our schools must be equipped with nutritional school milk options, and this is what this legislation attempts to try to do.

When kids like their school milk options that are flavorful and tasty, they consume them in the levels that they should. When kids, I think, like their choices for lunch or breakfast, America succeeds.

Let me close by saying that every body needs milk.

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