Political Quotes

“Mr. President, across America, our schools are open and our children are back in the classroom, and that is great news for everyone. Unfortunately, providing our children healthy food has been a real challenge for schools thanks to supply chain challenges that are happening in many places and almost in every State. This chart shows the supply chain disruptions across the country, with the red being almost 100 percent of the schools having supply chain challenges and disruptions. Over 90 percent of the schools in the majority of the country are having challenges just buying the food they need for the children. That is why, during the pandemic, Congress made sure schools and meal providers had flexibility to continue to feed hungry children. Ninety percent of our schools, from rural Alaska to downtown Louisville, are still relying on these flexibilities to keep their children fed. Extending these bipartisan tools in the omnibus package is essential to helping schools ease back into regular operations for our children. Nutrition operations at schools are working hard. They are working as hard as they can to get back to normal, but it takes time, and the waivers help. When basic staples like chicken and whole grains cost double, waivers help schools in Caribou, MN, for instance, keep feeding kids. When supply chain limits available food options like ground beef or fruit, schools in Bismarck, ND, for instance, can use substitutions to put together healthy lunches.…”