Child nutrition in difficult times

From the office of the Senate Agriculture Committee:

Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Saxby Chambliss, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry, today announced a Committee hearing entitled: Improving Nutrition for America's Children in Difficult Economic Times. The Committee will meet in open session at 9:30 A.M. on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

The hearing will continue the Committee's preparation for the reauthorization of federal child nutrition programs. The first panel will investigate the cost of producing a school meal, the adequacy of the existing federal reimbursement structure for school meals, and will highlight local efforts to improve nutrition throughout the school. The second panel will focus on the challenges and opportunities associated with providing food to children when they are not in school, including early childhood and childcare settings, summer nutrition initiatives, and after-school programs.

Harkin, serving dual roles in the Senate Agriculture and Health Committees, views the intersection of major health care reform and the child nutrition reauthorization as an opportunity to focus on prevention, starting with our kids, not just in our schools, but in childcare and other early childhood settings as well.

Witnesses for the proceeding include:

Panel I: Improving Nutrition Through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs

Dr. Katie Wilson, School Nutrition Director, Onalaska Public Schools, Onalaska, WI

Dr. Susan Bartlett, Senior Researcher, Abt Associates, Cambridge, MA

Mrs. Connie Boldt, School Food Director, Knoxville Community School District, Knoxville, IA

Panel II: Improving Nutrition for Children When They're Not in School

Dr. David Page, Professor, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD

Mr. Kenneth Hecht, Executive Director, California Food Policy Advocates, Oakland, CA

Ms. Lucy Nolan, Executive Director, End Hunger Connecticut, Hartford, CT