Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman for her comments. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. DeSaulnier), a hardworking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in support of my colleagues in urging the reauthorization of this act based on nutritional value and investment in this country's future and our young people. Specifically, I want to take a minute to talk about the simultaneous issues of extreme hunger and obesity in this country and in my home State of California, which are nothing short of staggering. Fourteen percent of people in California are food insecure. Twenty- three percent of California's children are food insecure. In my district, 14 percent of the total population is food insecure. In the United States, three out of four public school teachers tell us that students regularly come to class hungry. Eighty-one percent say it happens at least once a week. Over 15 million American kids struggle with hunger. On the other hand, American kids who eat school breakfast miss less school, get better grades, and are more likely to graduate from high school. At the same time, there is a childhood obesity epidemic in this country. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.…”