Child obesity is a crisis in this country. Over the last 30 years, child obesity rates have reached historic highs - more than tripling from just 5 percent to nearly 18 percent today. We must make improving child nutrition a top priority. If we fail to get serious about this issue today, we will face very serious consequences down the road.
To get people focused on this emerging issue, I asked Rachael Ray to come to Washington last week to help me lobby my colleagues in Congress on the Child Nutrition bill.
Rachael is so much more than just another celebrity with a cause. She likes to say that she will use "her big Sicilian mouth" to fight for what is important - and she does. She has already dedicated so much effort and energy to this cause through her non-profit organization, Yum-o!, empowering children and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.
Like you, Rachael understands that when kids don't get healthy food at school, it holds them back not only in class but over the course of their entire lives. It leads to lower test scores, and serious health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and depression. Ultimately, child obesity costs our country $150 billion per year in health care costs. As Rachael said last week, we can invest now and provide our children with healthy, nutritious food and education or pay a whole lot more in the years to come. We must invest in improving the health of our children today.
Currently, the federal government provides just $2.68 to cover the labor, equipment and food cost of each eligible child's school lunch. This is outrageously low. The Child Nutrition bill we're moving forward in the Senate increases this reimbursement rate by 6 cents. It is a laudable start, but it is still not enough.
I believe we need a much more robust investment. Investing 70 cents more in the reimbursement rate would enable schools to provide the healthy, nutritious meals our children need to lead healthy and successful lives. Schools stand ready to help our children, but they need our support.
The minimum increase we should settle for is 10 cents per child, which is the amount that the Institute of Medicine has said is the minimum required to lead to any sort of meaningful improvement to our children's nutrition. This is also consistent with the amount that is provided in President Obama's budget put forth earlier this year.
But our advocacy can not end here. I'm also working to improve the Child and Adult Care Food program by adding dinner to the menu so that all of our children are getting access to three healthy meals each day. In addition, we absolutely must ban artificial trans fats from all school lunches and index school meal eligibility to cost of living so that families in high cost areas like New York City have fair access. Child obesity is a crisis and we need to treat it as one.
These are the issues I'm fighting for from my position on the Senate Agriculture Committee and I am so grateful to Rachael Ray for coming to DC to lend her support for this important fight. When she was here, we sat in front of a classroom of children at Payne Elementary School and spoke with them about what they're learning about healthy eating and nutrition. Children created art projects depicting a healthy plate of food, they told us what they learned about healthy eating and I believe these kids are on a path toward healthy fulfilling lives. Unfortunately, I'm afraid they're the exception, not the rule.
It is time for us in Congress to make this investment a top priority and take real steps toward ending our nation's childhood obesity epidemic. Thank you Rachael for your advocacy. I hope everyone else will join us in this important effort.
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It's a cycle which starts with poor choices being repeated generation after generation.
I am a registered NYS democrat. Thank you for effort to curb childhood obesity.
However, I would like to know why you voted against the Kaufman-Brown amendment to the financial reform bill. The amendment would have capped the size of the mega banks in order to help end the "too big to fail" problem. These banks, which caused the financial catastrophe that put millions of Americans out of work, received huge rewards in the form of tax payer dollars as a part of the bailout. Now, while the poor and middle class suffer, these rich bankers gorge themselves in bonuses.
Over the course of your career, you have received $2.6 million in campaign contributions from the financial sector. Did this influence you in anyway with regards to this amendment?
High insulin levels come from processed carbs: corn syrup, flour, chips, crackers.
Anything that doesn't look like real meat, fruit or vegetable: don't eat it.
In the US, obesity is primarily caused by America's corn growers.
I doubt anyone on the Senate Agriculture Committee will do anything to change this.
It's all diet.
As far as I'm concerned, the war on obesity (and the junk food manufacturers and fast-food franchises that get rich making Americans fatter) should be among this nation's highest priorities. We will never be able to compete with low-wage foreign workers if our health care expenditures remain double (17% of GDP and climbing) that of other advanced industrial nations. And we are NEVER going to reduce the cost of health-care in America until we take on our obesity epidemic.
however good eating habits begin at home. i consider child obesity child abuse, but its so rampant the criminals are free to abuse their kids all they want to.
And you were okay with the tax hike that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer just implemented ?
And of course, let's not forget all the TONS of Bush tax hikes (too many to mention):
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/kfiles/b34039.html
Do your homework kid.
Staceyann C. Dolenti
The closest one to my house (2 blocks away) is one of those hippie whole foods organic places that reeks of vitamins. The shoppers all look like they have 6% body fat and can twist into any yoga knot imaginable.
My roommate shares the same fridge with me. I'm 6'3", 170 lbs, and 52 years old. He is 5'9", close to 200 pounds and just turned 30. I make protein shakes and quinoa, he makes frozen pizza and eats chips. I walk at least 2 hours everyday up and down Seattle hills, he plays video games.