The Senate Ag Committee held a hearing this morning on opportunities to address hunger and improve health in the reauthorization of federal child nutrition programs. The hearing comes one day after the release of the USDA’s 2008 report on household food security, which found that almost 15 percent of Americans are food-insecure — the highest number since the government started tracking data in 1995.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was one of the witnesses at this morning’s hearing. Here are some selected quotes from his testimony:

“We also need to expand the School Breakfast Program. Healthy days begin with healthy breakfasts. Many teachers report that they can tell which of their children had healthy breakfasts and which did not. While 100,000 schools offer lunch, only 88,000 offer breakfast. And only about 11 million children receive school breakfasts on an average school day, compared to 31 million for lunch.”

“We must do everything we can to improve the nutritional quality of school meals and the health of the school environment. A recent Institute of Medicine report showed that the average American child between the ages of 5 and 8 consumes about 720 empty, discretionary calories per day – nearly half their total diet of about 1,600 calories per day. Our young people are eating far less dark green and dark orange vegetables than they need, far fewer fruits than they need, far more refined grains and far too few whole grains, and far too much high-fat dairy products and too few low fat or non-fat dairy products. We must do better.

• Additional support should be provided to train school food service professionals so that they have the skills to serve top-quality meals that are both healthful and appealing to their student customers.
• Expand the current requirements of the food safety program to all facilities where food is stored, prepared and served.
• Every parent knows that encouraging children to try new foods can be challenging. But because children are developing preferences and practices that will last a lifetime, it is especially important that we recognize and support the role that school food service professionals play in serving foods that demonstrate that a healthful diet can be tasty and fun.
• But our approach should also reflect the critical role that the whole school environment – not just the lunch room – can play in the effort to promote healthful lifestyles and combat obesity.”

“Not only should USDA establish improved nutrition standards for school meals, but we should set national standards for all food sold in schools, including in the á la carte lines and in vending machines, to ensure that they too contribute to a healthy diet. This step is long overdue and critically important to enhancing the health of the school environment. And we need to strengthen school wellness policy implementation and promote physical activity in schools.”