WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, today released the following statement after President Trump proclaimed Oct. 14-20, 2018, as National School Lunch Week.
“The National School Lunch Program is vital to helping America’s schoolchildren reach their full potential throughout the school day and well into the future. I thank the school nutritionists and food directors for their work day in and day out to provide our students with nutritious meals.”
“The National School Lunch Program’s benefits are twofold. First, it provides a safety net for vulnerable populations who are at times without sufficient food. Second, the law requires a portion of the assistance for school meal programs to be in the form of agriculture commodities, produced here in America by our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and growers.”
Chairman Roberts has long been a champion of the National School Lunch Program. In 2015, Roberts traveled throughout Kansas, gathering input from students and school nutritionists on how to improve the rigid program put in place in the Obama Administration. Last year, Chairman Roberts joined U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to announce much-needed regulatory flexibility within the program, giving school nutrition directors expanded options to produce nutritious meals that students will eat. Click here to read more.
-30-