Case, Hon. Clifford P., a U.S. Senator from the State of New Jersey- Pollack, Ronald F., director, Food Research and Action Center, New Vaupel, Suzanne, project coordinator, FRAC, New York, N. Y. 23 Prepared statement.. 27 Irvings, Mark, project coordinator, FRAC, New York, N. Y. 29 Lyng, Hon. Richard, Assistant Secretary, USDA; accompanied by APPENDIXES 41 Appendix 1. Material submitted by the witnesses: From Mark Irvings: State-by-State comparison of USDA's figures and the actual 58 American School Food Service Association survey of average total Letter of May 22, 1972, to Chairman, Select Committee on Nutri- School Breakfast Program__ 65 Agricultural Economic Research: Shifting Direct Government Payments from Agriculture 67 Appendix 2. Material submitted by other than witnesses: 1971-72 Funding Projection Needs, January 1972 through June Letters of February 10, 1972, to Chairman, Committee on Agri- Report to Congress pursuant to Public Law 92-153 on funding Letter of response February 28, 1972, from USDA... From Chairman McGovern: Letter of February 17, 1972, to USDA..... From Chairman Carl D. Perkins: Appendix 3. Exhibits pertinent to the hearing: If We Had Ham, We Could Have Ham and Eggs . . . If We Had Public Law 92-153, 92d Congress, H.J. Res. 923, November 5, 1971_ Letter of March 1, 1972, to Chairman, Select Committee on Nutri- OFFICE OF SENATOR GEORGE MCGOVERN SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 1972 SENATE HUNGER COMMITTEE TO PURSUE USDA ON Senator George McGovern (D-SD) today announced that the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, of which he is chairman, has rescheduled its hearing on the School Breakfast Program for Monday, April 10, in Room 1202 of the New Senate Office Building, beginning at 11 a.m. The hearing will be chaired by Senator Philip Hart (D-Mich). Senator Hart has, for the last decade, been a leading advocate of child nutrition programs and his interest in the School Breakfast Program dates to its origin. He was among the principal sponsors of the legislation which established this program. At this time, the breakfast program is floundering. It reaches only 940,000 children per day of 55 million schoolchildren in America. Of the number reached, 520,000 children are from poor families. These figures are especially significant when compared to the over-27 million children (of whom nearly 7 million are needy) reached daily by the School Lunch Program. In addition, the program presently operates in only 6,500 of the Nation's 100,000 schools. In spite of this, and in the face of the widely documented need for more breakfast programs in our schools, USDA recently told Congress that it can find only 1,170 schools desiring breakfast programs and that there are no schools seeking programs in 32 States including Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri, Alabama, and South Carolina. Yet, according to Mr. Ronald Pollack, of the Food Research Action Center (FRAC) in New York, the survey he recently conducted shows that the total may be as high as 20 times the USDA estimate. Preliminary results of the FRAC Survey indicate that Texas alone "desires" 1,700 programs-530 more than USDA claims the entire Nation desires. The survey-which USDA relied upon in offering its figures to Congress-was ordered by Congress in Public Law 92-153, which was enacted last November. That legislation required that USDA was to report to Congress the specific number of schools "desiring" a School Breakfast Program. Rather than ascertain that figure, the Department reported the number of schools which had actually applied for the program-a very low number since official applications were discouraged by State and USDA officials on the grounds that application was useless due to a lack of funds for the program. This was the very problem that Congress sought to remedy by learning how many schools “desired" the program. Testifying on the USDA survey will be Senator Clifford Case (R-NJ). Senator Case was one of the first members of Congress to balk at the results of the USDA "survey." Mr. Pollack will be accompanied by Suzanne Vaupel and Mark Irvings of the Food Research Action Center (FRAC). FRAC, in the past year, has been preparing a comprehensive study of the School Breakfast Program. It includes documentation of the need for, desirability of, and the benefits accruing from the program. The FRAC study, entitled "If We Had Ham, We Could Have Ham and Eggs, If We Had Eggs," ,"* was recently published. They will be followed by Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Richard Lyng who is expected to defend the Department's response. *Sec Appendix 3, p. 83. (IV) |