Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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By Mr. DURBIN:

S. 3342. A bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to establish a demonstration project to promote collaborations to improve school nutrition; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, childhood obesity is a growing concern in the U.S. and I am pleased that the President and First Lady have decided to tackle this issue with the goal of solving the problem in a generation. Today, one in three children is overweight or obese, which means that they are at a greater risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and cancer over the course of their lives. We are spending nearly $150 billion a year to treat obesity-related medical conditions, and this problem will only become worse if we don't do something about it now.

One way that the Federal Government can play an important role in addressing this problem is by helping to make schools healthier. Students spend an average of nearly 7 hours a day at school, and it is one of the places where kids formally learn and then can practice healthy habits related to nutrition and physical activity. While education is primarily funded by the states, the Federal government plays a significant role in this issue as well because of its funding of the National School Lunch Program. This year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, will spend $10.2 billion on the school lunch program, which serves 31 million children across the country every day. In my home State of Illinois, 1.1 million students in over 4,000 schools participate.

The National School Lunch Program was started after World War II, because our leaders then understood the importance of investing in good nutrition to ensure that the country's youth were well nourished and healthy. When President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act, he said that ``in the long view, no nation is healthier than its children.''

Today, we know that the program is making a real difference in millions of kids' lives, by ensuring they don't go hungry during the school day and are ready to learn. We also know that there are some clear nutritional benefits of the program. USDA reports that research on the school lunches consistently shows that participants consume more milk and vegetables at lunch; have higher vitamin intakes; and consume fewer sweets, sweetened beverages, and snack foods than nonparticipants.

However, much of the difference in vegetable consumption may be due to a higher consumption of French fries and other potato products, and many lunches contain a higher percentage of calories from fat than currently recommended. USDA's current nutrition standards for school meals have not been updated since 1995 and are not in line with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. I think we need to take President Truman's words to heart, and make long-term investments in this program to ensure that kids are eating healthy meals.

I support the President's goal of increased funding, so that schools can afford to purchase healthier ingredients to make school lunches. However I know that the nutritional quality of school meals varies greatly across the country, and providing every school with adequate funding to improve their meals will be challenging. Some schools have already shown that even with limited resources they can make real improvements in the nutritional quality of their school meals, and make other changes to make school environments healthier.

I would like to build on that concept, which is why I am pleased today to introduce the Healthy School Partnerships Act of 2010. This bill will create a competitive grant program at USDA to allow public schools to explore innovative, sustainable programs that improve the nutritional profile of school meals and make other improvements to make school environments healthier. The bill authorizes $2 million per year for 5 years to fund collaborations of academic experts, dieticians and nutrition professionals, community partners, and local schools to implement and evaluate innovative models to improve food quality, student choices in food, and healthy school environments. This could include starting programs to improve the nutritional content of school meals; providing more nutrition education; changing school policies to promote greater access to healthier foods and physical activity; training teachers, school administrators and nurses; or making other changes to make school environments healthier. We need grass roots involvement and real-world models to solve the childhood obesity problem going forward, and this bill provides the funding to develop those.

Childhood obesity is a complex problem, and to effectively tackle it we will need the commitment of the public and private sectors. The Healthy Schools Partnerships Act of is one part of the solution. By tapping local resources and expertise, we can promote collaborations and develop sustainable and replicable models for making systemic changes that promote good nutrition and healthy living among students.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record

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