David Skaggs: “I would like to commend to all Members of the House a striking series of articles from the Los Angeles Times. They…”

“I would like to commend to all Members of the House a striking series of articles from the Los Angeles Times. They provide a poignant rejoinder to current House Republican doctrine that we can somehow cut school lunch and breakfast programs without really hurting anybody. The articles tell the story of the kids from West Covina, CA, a place where the local school board decided not to participate in the school breakfast program. Let me just give an excerpt. By 10 many mornings there is a long line outside the nurse's door. Some children clutch their stomachs, others their heads. In this mostly middle-class bedroom community, these children share a common ailment. They are hungry. Phys ed teacher Barbara Davids sometimes fed 12-year-old boy who volunteered to help custodians pick up after lunch so he could salvage garbage scraps. Another student got in trouble so he could be sent to the principal's office, where a jar of candies was perched on the desk. "I'm so hungry. I'm so hungry," sobbed the 12-year-old-boy dipping his hand into the jar.”