some potato chips and a soft drink-thing of that sort-which are foods frequently given to them in the mornings-the kind of things we tend to call junk foods-this becomes the habit they have the appetite for in later life. We know the eating habits built up in the earliest years are perpetuated.

We certainly have a lot of statistics about such things as mental retardation. Perhaps it is not extreme. It may not be the kind of thing that one would identify as a marked kind of retardation, but we know children cannot live up to their potential.

The brain does grow something like 80 percent during the first 5 years of life. Those nerve cells need good nutrition in order to properly develop. I think many ailments of the poor, we see as they grow older, can be traced back to poor nutrition in early life.

Senator KENNEDY. Do your Day Care programs use donated commodities?

Miss VERNON. Well, do you want to comment on that, Miss Robbins? Miss ROBBINS. We just did a study in our Head Start program to try and decide the extent to which they could use food programs. In order to participate in the Food Commodities Program, you have to have a certain amount of space for storage, and you have to be able to pick up and transport commodities back to your program.

In the study of our Head Start program, just as a place to start, we found we were Group 3 in the commodity program-which provides you such terrific breakfast foods as peanut butter. Also, over 50 percent of the Head Start centers did not have the required storage space; and, almost 100 percent did not have any way to pick up and transport commodities back to their program.

So it is kind of a "catch-22" situation. We say, "Here, take them free food and serve yourself for breakfast." However, you cannot get the food unless you have the money to buy a truck to transport it, unless you have the money necessary to provide the storage space, required in the law, before you are eligible for the Food Commodities Program.

So it comes down to the same thing. It comes down to money. It would probably cost them less and would be more beneficial to usgiven the kind of food we are eligible for in the commodities program-to have the money to serve breakfast, rather than buy a truck and build storage space only to get peanut butter in the end.

Senator KENNEDY. What will you do if Congress acts to limit the funds available under Title IV-A of the Social Security Act?

Miss VERNON. First we would cry a lot, I guess. We would simply be under fantastic pressure to maintain the number of children that we are planning to serve, and perhaps have to cut quality. The demand for Day Care is built up to such a patch now, that if funds were to be limited and we would not be able to expand, I think we would be trapped in a very, very unhealthy situation. I really want to say that it is not just a question of what we would do, but what would the children do? What will the families, who really need this program so badly, do? They are really the ones that would be penalized by such

an act.

I can only hope and pray that such a thing will never happen. Senator KENNEDY. Thank you very much. You have given very, very helpful testimony.

Miss VERNON. Thank you.

Senator KENNEDY. The next witnesses are from Springfield, Mass., Sheila Malloy and Lois Bright. Is Mrs. Gustafson here? I believe you have a statement. You may proceed with it. Do you have an extra copy?

STATEMENT OF MRS. SHEILA MALLOY, HEALTH AND NUTRITION COORDINATOR FOR SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

Mrs. MALLOY. I am Sheila Malloy, Health and Nutrition Coordinator for the Head Start Day Care programs in Springfield, Mass. I am engaged in a time-consuming and frustrating struggle to provide food service for my program. The children under my responsibility fall into three categories: Roughly 125 are from Head Start; 250, welfare, and 75 are children who are supported by the Department of Labor. Because of this administrative admixture we are not eligible for Section 13 funds, which include Head Start. The Welfare Department. pays part of the costs of some of the children.

The Labor Department assumes food costs are provided from other sources and so do not provide them.

Senator KENNEDY. Why weren't you eligible for the Section 13 funds? Why did they tell you that?

Mrs. MALLOY. In September of 1971, when I called the School Lunch Program in Boston, I was told by Mr. Cella that we did not apply before the November 1969 cutoff date, and so we were not eligible for Section 13 reimbursement. Further, in the course of conversations, he questioned me as to who sponsors our Head Start, do we, in fact, come under the CAP agency or the school department.

When I responded with CAP agency, he said, "I thought you said you were getting school lunches for some of your children", which in fact we had been prior to that.

He said we were not eligible for those, because they were only supposed to go to the school department agencies. So at this point, I froze, because I didn't know what else to do, and he said, "I will send you applications, but you are not going to get any reimbursement because you are not eligible."

MUST CHANGE TO TITLE I

On that very day, I got a call from the school department telling us that, in fact, we had to somehow change; that they, the school department, were going to be held responsible for paying. That the School Lunch Program would no longer continue to cover reimbursements; and, that we would have to switch to Title I.

This brought up the whole possibility of testing for educationally deprived children.

Senator KENNEDY. What are those tests, could you tell us about that? Mrs. MALLOY. I wish I could. I can't tell you about them, because we have never tested all our children. We did not do that testing, because we did not have tests that we felt were adequate to the task of evaluating black children.

Senator KENNEDY. But they were going to require that they take tests, is that right?

Mrs. MALLOY. That is what they were talking about.

Senator KENNEDY. Why do you think they consider that?

Mrs. MALLOY. My understanding of it is that for Title I you have to prove that the recipients are educationally deprived. And, as a parent of mine said at that point, "It is not bad enough that we are black and poor, now we have to be black, poor, and stupid to eat." She was really upset.

The testing for the black children is not terribly adequate anyway. Senator KENNEDY. So then what happened?

When you said to the person at the other end of the phone "What has the cutoff time in 1969 got to do with our needs in 1970, or 1971?” What did he say at the other end of the phone?

Mrs. MALLOY. There wasn't any money for new programs. That was essentially what he said.

Senator KENNEDY. We now see that they are going to return all this money. What sense does that make to you?

Mrs. MALLOY. I would ask whoever is returning it what sense that makes. I am not returning it, I am very upset about it. I have been told for a year now there are no funds, and now I find there are funds being returned.

Senator KENNEDY. Well, the Congress appropriated funds; authorized them and appropriated funds. They thought they would be expended to help. I voted for it, and supported it to help the children up in Springfield and all the other Springfields in Massachusetts. Then they tell you that there is no money there; yet they are returning unspent moneys.

What does that mean to you?

Mrs. MALLOY. It means our children are not, in fact, being fed. We are robbing Peter to pay Paul all the way along the line.

Senator KENNEDY. Do you think, if there is any money left in the Defense Department that they would return it?

Mrs. MALLOY. You are asking me?

[Laughter.]

Mrs. MALLOY. I am not sure what the administration's priorities are, but I question them now.

Senator KENNEDY. Would you proceed?

Mrs. MALLOY. The results of all the asumptions by agencies and departments that someone else is doing the work is that children are fed only because of two circumstances: I mentioned that we are told by the local school department that we are using the Title I education funds which are badly needed and intended for other purposes.

We rob Peter to pay Paul, switch funds that should be used within each of the budgets for that purpose only.

Despite these facts, and despite the fact that my job should involve in-service training, development of sound programs and attention to the health component of our services, a tremendous amount of my time is now taken up in going from office to office to get funds. I know now the funds are there, before I just suspected they were. I am told they are intended for the very children under my care; and yet, somehow, I am not getting them.

I have, as I say, the sequential records from September of 1971. Senator KENNEDY. You will submit those? They will be very interesting for us.

Mrs. MALLOY. I will be glad to.

I also have a letter. A group of us went down to Mr. Stalker's office on Monday and spoke with him; he was very willing to take the application, but assured us that there were no funds available. I have a letter here, from his office written by his project director that states

Senator KENNEDY. I understand he was assured, or the State director up there was assured, there were not any funds available.

Mrs. MALLOY. That is what I am told. He said they were, "accepting applications and agreement forms to participate, but we cannot approve them until this program is properly funded. . . If you wish to write to your congressional representative asking his support. Senator KENNEDY. You will submit those*, anyway?

Mrs. MALLOY. Yes.

STATEMENT OF MRS. LOIS BRIGHT, CHAIRMAN, SPRINGFIELD, MASS., HEAD START POLICY COMMITTEE

Mrs. BRIGHT. I am Lois Bright, head of a parents' organization de veloped to participate in the design and administration of Head Start. I have just recently completed training at the University of Massachusetts as a nutrition aide. Because I am a Head Start mother, I have a special interest in the food that is provided in the program. My child participates in the program-what is supposed to be a program. It is supposed to be a comprehensive child care program.

I have particularly strong feelings about the importance of nutrition, nutrition in the lives of very young children. You are what you eat. Your eating habits start at a young age, and this is my concern as a parent.

Senator KENNEDY. How many children do you have?

Mrs. BRIGHT. How many children? How many do I have in my group?

Senator KENNEDY. How many do you have in the program? Do you have any that are benefiting from the program?

Mrs. BRIGHT. Yes.

Senator KENNEDY. How many?

Mrs. BRIGHT. I have one.

Senator KENNEDY. One child. Could you tell us a little bit about the program, as a parent, what the child tells you about it? Is he happy with it?

Mrs. BRIGHT. She is not aware of certain things. She is not given certain types of food or not introduced to new types of food, and the setting is different. That is according to what I have learned in the last year or so in nutrition, I try to bring this into my home with my children, and what she is bringing back from school is different.

Senator KENNEDY. What is the reaction of some of the other parents with the program? Are they pleased with the program, are they disappointed that it is curtailed, would they like to expand it? Do you find, from talking to your friends, that it is a needed type of program? Mrs. BRIGHT. The Head Start program?

Senator KENNEDY. Head Start and nutrition programs.

* See Appendix 2, p. 601.

NUTRITION COULD CURTAIL FUTURE MEDICAL COSTS

Mrs. BRIGHT. The Head Start program is badly needed. The nutrition part should be expanded more to accomodate children, and that is one of the areas. Along with nutrition comes health, we are very concerned about that. We feel, very strongly, if we work with nutrition, possibly later on we won't need as much medical care.

Senator KENNEDY. Have you talked to the other parents about this program in the community? Are they aware of it and support it?

Mrs. BRIGHT. Oh, yes. Actually, Head Start and nutrition are my first names.

Senator KENNEDY. Mrs. Malloy, the Department of Agriculture argues that it does not need to provide food services for these programs out of Section 13 funds because they are already funded for food services from other sources; and that their support would be a duplication. How would you respond to that argument?

Mrs. MALLOY. My first response is that I am not sure that they know what is the need. If you are discouraged from making application, that is, because you are told you are not going to get the money in the first place, you don't bother applying.

That is essentially the feeling when you call the office. So, you know, there is no paperwork involved in all this. What we have done now, is, we have applied for year around and summer programs.

Senator KENNEDY. Here, on the committee, when we are trying to authorize different levels of funding, we ask about the number of applications for various programs-nutritional programs or health centers or whatever. Then, usually the agencies say, "Well, we recommend this level of funding because we have not had many applications." If you look back at that, they are out discouraging applications.

It is a vicious kind of a cycle, and I see it has been working here, in the nutrition area, as well. They discourage it, and therefore there are no applications. Then they say, "this is all the money they could spend."

Mrs. MALLOY. They send applications to the people who already have programs. So, if you don't have somebody out there using time and energy to find out what is available, you are out in the cold. Then on top of that, you have the response of, "Well, there is no money anyway."

Senator KENNEDY. As I understand, you have 125 Head Start, 250 welfare, and 75 Department of Labor children, is that right? Mrs. MALLOY. That is, roughly, it.

Senator KENNEDY. Do you find some of those agencies claim the other agencies are providing the resources and therefore they don't? Mrs. MALLOY. Yes.

Senator KENNEDY. Could you tell us a little bit about that-how that works, or what is said to you-so that we get some kind of idea about it?

Mrs. MALLOY. Well, I can tell you that essentially, when we were sitting in Mr. Stalker's office Monday, he did respond at one point that, "If you are getting this money, from the Welfare Department, then why can't that pay for the food, also?"