September 24, 1973
Page 31088
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the legislation before the Senate today, the National School Lunch and Child Nutrition Act Amendments of 1963 (H.R. 9639), would make many welcome changes in the school lunch and child nutrition programs, including increasing the basic Federal reimbursement for each school lunch from 8 cents to 10 cents. Yet the rampant inflation of food prices in recent months makes this reimbursement insufficient. To safeguard the ability of local school systems to provide reasonably priced lunches to schoolchildren, the Senate should adopt the amendment pending before us to increase further the reimbursement level this year.
The effect of food price increases on school lunch programs is well documented by statistics about the program in my own State of Maine. According to the Maine Department of Educational and Cultural Services, the cost of the average school lunch will be 6 cents higher this year than last year. It is unlikely that local communities in Maine will be able to provide additional funds to absorb these increases. Unless the Federal subsidy rises substantially, this cost increase will result either in cutbacks of the school lunch program, or in cost increases to the schoolchildren themselves. So the plain result would be that fewer children would be able to take advantage of the school lunch program.
We, in Maine experienced last March a 5 cents per meal increase in the price of most school lunches. In view of that experience, the director of the Maine school nutrition program expects "a dramatic reduction in participation of paid meals" if the Federal subsidy is not adequately increased. The State program estimates that the base Federal reimbursement per lunch must be a minimum of 12 cents – the level established by the pending amendment – to avoid new sharp increases in prices.
Mr. President, we cannot afford to cut back our commitment to the sound nutrition of our schoolchildren. That commitment requires the adequate level of Federal school lunch reimbursement provided in the amendment before us.