Jun. 16--NEW HAVEN -- Child nutrition advocates met at Wexler/Grant Community School Monday to urge U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, to increase federal reimbursements to school lunch and breakfast programs, expand eligibility guidelines for nutrition assistance for low-income families and streamline dietary restrictions across states.
Congress is expected to vote later this year to pass the Child Nutrition and WIC (Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children) Reauthorization Act.
The act provides funding for the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Food Care Program, Summer Food Service Program and WIC. The programs must be reauthorized every five years. The latest act will expire Sept. 30.
The requests were well received by DeLauro, who said she was working to include those changes in the latest reauthorization.
"The programs are reauthorized for five years. If we're going to do it, let's do it right," DeLauro said.
"We need to provide people with a clear blueprint," DeLauro said. "When people are hungry, they need to eat, and they need to have nutritious food. That's got to be bedrock. â?¦Why we have to beg for resources every year is incredible to me."
At the two-hour forum on the reauthorization act Monday, DeLauro heard testimony from parents, students and educators on a variety of nutrition programs.
Cindy Brooks, food service director for Seymour schools, said it costs her district $2.90 to $3.12 to provide a lunch. The federal government reimburses the district $2.47.
"With each meal we produce, we are losing money," she said.
As the economy declines, Brooks said she has heard from parents no longer able to pay the reduced price, 40 cents, for school lunch.
Middletown mother of six Marilyn Dunkley told attendees she cannot afford to serve breakfast and lunch each day for her family, and relies on school nutrition programs and WIC money throughout the year. Her kids go through four gallons of milk each week.
"At five dollars a pop, it's pretty expensive," she said. "Knowing they can have two decent meals at school is a sigh of relief to me," she said. "Our children should not pay for the adult mistakes we have made. Our children need to eat."
Wexler/Grant students Tiffany Rouse and Kennedy Hampton called for the continuation of nearly universal free lunch inb New Haven, saying it allows students to eat without embarrassment.
"Universal free lunch gives kids the opportunity to get two healthy meals a day that they may not get at home," Rouse said. "Keep free lunches going so no one is singled out or embarrassed."
New Haven provides free lunch to all students regardless of income in elementary and middle school and some high schools.
State Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, urged those in attendance to take their messages beyond the city.
"We have two Connecticuts; the problem is the other Connecticut does not understand the needs of all the families," Walker. "If we cannot feed our children, they cannot thrive. If they cannot thrive, we are failures. We need to take this conversation to other neighborhoods that are not like ours."
The forum was organized by End Hunger Connecticut! a statewide anti-hunger organization.
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