Child Nutrition

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, across the country, the school year is winding down, and students will be on summer break. We know that when school is out, many students who receive free and reduced-price meals throughout the school year are not getting the nutrition that they need.

The pandemic required us to explore innovative options for getting food and nutrition, for getting that assistance to children in need, especially those who were in rural and hard-to-serve areas. That is why I, along with Senator Leahy, have reintroduced the Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act.

I am pleased that we have 12 bipartisan cosponsors and the support of national organizations like Feeding America, Share Our Strength, Tusk Philanthropies, Bread for the World, the Alliance to End Hunger, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, and Save the Children.

When I served as a school board member many years ago, I saw how important the national school meals program is to providing many children with healthy meals, helping them to learn and grow. I also saw that many kids were left without nutritious food during the summer months.

Seeing this reality is, in part, why I wanted to serve as cochair of the Senate Hunger Caucus. It is the reason why I care about these programs, ensuring we have a bipartisan child nutrition reauthorization process that can include this bill that Senator Leahy and I are introducing.

Before the pandemic, we had data that showed the traditional Summer Food Service Program was not serving all of the kids who needed these meals. Only one in seven children receiving free or reduced-price meals during the school year were receiving meals from the current Summer Meals Program.

Big gaps exist, especially in rural areas. According to Feeding America, 86 percent of counties with children most at risk for food insecurity are rural counties.

The current program requires children to come to a feeding site and eat their meals with other children. This concept has its benefits, as it builds a sense of community, provides a safe place for kids to go, and then offers them a chance to participate in other physical and enrichment activities.

However, we know that getting kids to a feeding site can be a real challenge. Buses take students to school, but the buses don't run in the summer.

During the pandemic, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to waive the requirement that kids had to eat meals together at feeding sites. This flexibility has spurred innovation with public-private partnerships. For instance, in my home State of Arkansas, Faulkner County did a tremendous job packing meal boxes to be sent home to families. Volunteers have delivered meals through mobile delivery routes. Thanks to the Meals to You program that was coordinated by the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, more than 1.1 million meals were delivered directly to the doorstep of almost 9,000 children living in rural Arkansas.

According to Share Our Strength, there was a 160-percent increase in the number of meals served by allowing offsite consumption of meals.

Another way to ensure kids are receiving access to food is through the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer Program. Each child receives a set amount of money that is loaded onto an EBT card. Families then can shop for food to make sure their kids get the nutrition they need. This program has been tested for a number of years by the USDA. The results have shown that providing a $30 monthly benefit for a child was effective in reducing the most severe category of food insecurity during the summer and can lead to positive changes in children's nutritional outcomes through the consumption of healthier foods.

This bill expands how we ensure children receive healthy meals throughout the summer.

The pandemic has certainly shown the importance and the success of this program when offsite consumption and EBT are options States can utilize to feed children.

I want to commend the volunteers and staff on the frontlines who are there each and every day ensuring that children receive the nutrition they need. They work tirelessly, being true heroes to so many families during the pandemic. I thank them for their hard work, their innovation, and their dedication.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the weeks and months ahead to see this bill become part of a permanent, bipartisan child nutrition reauthorization law. It is important that members of the Ag Committee work together in a bipartisan manner, through regular order, agreeing on the policy and the offsets that will be required to provide schools, States, and families greater certainty into the future. I am committed to a bipartisan path forward, and this bill is just the beginning.

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