Transcripts For CSPAN National Governors Association Holds Winter Meeting 20170227

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. And i think we should get started. It is another important, big day nga and we have important work to do. Im door to mcauliffe, first lady of virginia, and chair of the spouses leadership committee, and it is my honor to welcome you all to this very special winter meeting, joint session for governors and thousand. Today, we are talking about ending child hunger, improving lives, and investing in americas future. I want to thank on the governors here this morning and espouses and the many Partner Organizations in attendance this morning. I will say it is my understanding that it has been several years since there has been a joint session of this nature at the nda, so nga, so im excited for the unique opportunity to have the spouses at the table. I want to give my acknowledgment. Excusednd does have an absence this morning. Hes currently at fox news extolling the good work being done here this weekend for the nga. He will be joining us later in the session. Say a big thank you to the nga team and to share our strength for helping pull together this presentation this morning. And i want to thank you, governor sandoval, for comoderating today. You have been remarkable advocates and i appreciate that you are willing to share your Success Stories and inspire other governors to take action on this issue. I am really grateful for the opportunity to speak with you all today about an issue that is vitally important to all of us, and that his childhood hunger. Much like the discussions governors had yesterday morning about Early Childhood education, investing in quality Nutrition Programs for children pays off down the line many times over in improved health and education outcomes. My husbands top priority, as it is for all of you, is expanding, growing, and diversifying, our states economy so our families can put food on the table, have a high quality of life, even as expenses continue to rise. Our National Economy continues to improve and wages are trending in the right direction, yet many working families are still struggling. Too Many Americans are underemployed while many more are working multiple jobs and still unable to make ends meet. Ofult is that far too many our communities suffer from high rates of Child Poverty and far too many children are coming home to empty cupboards at the end of the school day, over the weekend, and throughout the summer. Startling newt a milestone. For the first time, a majority of all public full children qualified for free or reduced price meals. Ins means that will meals federal child Nutrition Programs are more important than ever to the health and wellbeing and education of our next generation. We know that education is the ultimate bridge out of poverty, but the fact remains that cannot expect our children to be hungry for knowledge if they are just plain hungry. When we provide students with access to nutritious meals, we are not just nursing their bodies, we are feeding their minds. In his first proposed budget, my half 1included over million to help improvements to alternative service models, like breakfast in the classroom, grab and go breakfast and Second Chance breakfast, which is proven to increase the increase participation and very importantly, to reduce stigma. 54 First Release found that of all schools that participated in the state breakfast incentive funding increased the number of meals served and showed improvement in one or more standardized test subjects. And this comes on the heels of a study by deloitte in 2014, which found that students who their schoolin Breakfast Programs showed improvement of 17. 5 ross stores. We know there are many factors and success, but research is clear that nutrition is a critical part of the equation. Those of you who are educators in the room, you will understand what we say. If it is important for every child to have breakfast on test days it is important every , school day of the year. Additionally, Research Shows there is linkage between childhood insecurity and the risk for childhood maltreatment. We will expand upon that shortly. This is why we have made it our mission in virginia to expand access to healthy meals by taking full advantage of every federal child nutrition dollar. Since the very beginning of our Public Education system educators and Public Officials , have recognized that nutrition is an essential tool in making sure students are able to focus and to learn. Following world war ii, our military leadership approached congress with deep concern about mission readiness. Based on the scores of soldiers and sailors that were unable to serve due to issues of malnutrition. Their advocacy led to a significant expansion of the program at the time and we have continued to affirm the critical importance of the nutritional safety net for our children to ensure our future workforce can future workforce and to protect our economic and National Security interests. Yet, major gaps in our safety net still plague us. The federal fund exists to feed hungry children in the morning, after school, and during summer. Sadly, these are largely underutilized because of various barriers related to access and awareness. So, it is not a lack of resources, but a lack of focus and prioritization that prevents our students from having enough to eat. In virginia, we are making progress because we have made it a priority. The results we achieved our in a short amount of time are a testament to what they can accomplish when we work together. We share our strength and we are making strides by offering outward support and targeting assistant to grow Nutrition Programs in schools, nonprofits and local Government Agencies that are providing summer and afterSchool Programs to our students. We believe that schools are the most practical, scalable, and Sustainable Way to reach children each and every day with the nutrition they need to thrive. Expanding these programs is not only helping us to grow at the virginia economy by investing in the health and education of our children but it brings in new , investment to the state and making an impact on the local economy. For example in virginia, 5 , million more breakfasts were served last school year than the year before, which brought in an additional 10. 4 million for School Nutrition programs allowing them to hire staff, spend morebor hours, on locally grown foods, and purchase new equipment. Again, that is an investment of . 5 million that brought an additional 10. 5 million in federal reimbursement to our nearly 2000 roi because of returning investment. The governor expanded to more than 2 million over two years, which is supporting alternative or chris grahams at 463 schools across the commonwealth. Alternative Breakfast Programs at 463 schools across the commonwealth. No child in the nation is as rich in resources as ours should suffer the shame, i ndignity, and visible symptoms of hunger. It is also come i think we have shown in virginia, an economic imperative. We cannot build the work force needed to lead United States into competitiveness and protect our National Security in this increasingly complex world. If 13 million American Children are hungry. Lackng as our children yearround access to the nutrition they need, our Economic Future is at risk. This morning, you will hear from several governors who have used their platforms to raise awareness. And elevate it as a priority in their states. Some have taken direct legislative action to move the needle and leverage the federal Nutrition Program to benefit their communities, as we have in virginia. As my friend billy shore recognized in launching the hunger campaign, childhood hunger in america is the problem big enough to matter but small enough to solve. We have the ability in the country to end childhood hunger by the power of public and private partnerships, and by combining the leaderships of our governors with the dedication and private resources of Community Organizations and businesses. And now, i would like to recognize nevada governor brian sandoval, ngas vice chair, and Kathleen Sandoval, our spouses Committee Vice chair, both of whom are great champions of hunger prevention initiatives and supporting environments for students, their learning and wellbeing. It has been my pleasure to work with kathleen in partnership on the leadership committee, and we will hear from her later this morning during the roundtable portion of todays session. Thank you, governor sandoval and sothank you, governor sandoval and kathleen, and you can offer , your remarks at this time. Governor sandoval good morning. What a privilege and pleasure to be with you all. Before i get into my formal remarks, i wanted to give my sincere appreciation to all of the first spouses for your sacrifices and commitments to your respective states. It is truly remarkable, and thank you mcauliffe. I have Great Respect for you and your husband. Hes doing a remarkable job as chairman of the governors association. Im so appreciated you brought this issue to the forefront of ngas policy agenda and part of your spouses initiative. Your work will have been Lasting Impact on states and will help , our advocacy at the federal level to ensure a strong and continued commitment to feeding hungry children. As you said i dont know there , could be a more noble cause than feeding hungry children. To the National School breakfast, lunch, and summer feeding programs. Later this afternoon, as many of you may or may not know the , governors will reaffirm our child nutrition policy to make sure it remains the focus of ngas work. Like you and governor mcauliffe, i am proud to be here with my wonderful wife kathleen. Greatest first lady in the history of nevada, but really proud of her. And she and i have seen the effects of child hunger on childrens health, learning, and wellbeing. You know, we all talk about our education Reform Efforts in our respective states, but those efforts alone cannot address the underlying issues that prevent many students from learning. Hunger is a roadblock to learning and nevada is fortunate to have kathleen and her focus on removing this roadblock from our schools. Her work contributed to a new law in the state of nevada requiring breakfast after the bell in high need schools. I like to refer to kathleen is as not only the first lady but , the first mom. She cares so deeply about the children in our state. I am really excited and delighted to hear from her and she will share specifics going on in the great state of nevada about our initiatives and efforts to ensure we are better leveraging federal programs to fight childhood hunger. And i would be remiss if i did not introduce the first daughter of the great state of nevada, marissa sandoval. [laughter] [applause] again, imndoval honored to join all of you and i know all of you have had your experiences. As governors and first spouses, we all visit the schools. You see those little guys. It is not their fault. They come to school, and they are hungry. Like i said, i think it is so important to do whatever we can for them. You know, i recall talking to a , ander and a principal they talk about the kids that are hungry, and they are putting food in their pocket so they can have it when they go home so they can have something to eat. We are about to see a video from jeff bridges with regard to save our strengths. I had the opportunity to meet with mr. Bridges along with the first lady in las vegas and we , visited a boys and girls club. We all know he is up for nomination and hopefully he will win that best supporting actor award. He has been an Academy Award winner. Really, what struck me, is a gentleman of his fame, and being so well known, but seeing how deeply he cared for those kids and how he sat down with them, and governor beloved can appreciate governor bullock can appreciate that well. He looks them in the eye, and cares so deeply. I hope you have the opportunity to meet him as well. I appreciate the attendance today because it really does show how much you want deeply care about the children of your respective state. Thank you for the opportunity. Greetings. [laughter] we are facing a lot of problems as a nation, but one of those problems is solvable now, and that is the problem of kids who do not have enough to eat. One in five kids in the United States faces hunger. It affects every kid in every community in your state, every single one. Those kids will not grow up to be healthy, not going to graduate from school, not going to grow up to live the lives that they deserve or be the citizens we need them to be. There are solutions out there, making breakfast as part of the regular school day, providing free meals. We know these solutions work. We have seen that they have bipartisan support and we need them to expand right now. Luckily, you are exactly the people who can get it done. All right, i have said my piece. Thank you for listening and thank you for everything that you do. Thank you, jeff bridges. [applause] we certainly wish him well tonight for sure. He has been a great champion and a great place for childhood hunger. I know i personally will be rooting for him tonight. We are very fortunate to have a panel with us today. Three distinguished presenters who are experts in their area of Child Welfare and food policy and child nutrition. I am pleased to introduce each of them. First we have david sanders, executive Vice President with more than 20 years of experience in the delivery of social services to families and improving Child Welfare. Including Child Maltreatment and child fatalities. We also have hugh acheson, a renowned chef and nationally resound restauranteur, and he will discuss the importance of raising awareness about Healthy Eating and childhood hunger. Last but not least, rodney taylor. One of the largest and highest performance called districts in the country. He will share creed of strategies he has employed to improve the quality of school meals and increase participation in assistance programs in california. He will also happen to be a personal hero of mine. Thanks to all of you for joining us again this morning. I look forward to your remarks and informative discussion on the thoughtprovoking topic. Thank you first Lady Mcauliffe, and governor sandoval for the invitation. David i am david sanders, vice family programs. For those of you unfamiliar with casey family programs, kc family programs, we are the largest foundation in the country focused exclusively on foster care and Child Welfare. Andmission is to provide openly prevent the need for foster care. All 50 states and have agreements and staff assigned to all of your states and if you would like to identify or meet the person you have assigned to your state, let me know. Ember junior, we have joan. She has worked with first lady mccullough on the desperately to mccullough on the no caps on the initiative. With first lady hungryfe on the initiative. We work on multiple levels and with multiple systems. The Public Health approach includes providing support and services to atrisk children. As you have already heard very briefly, Food Insecurity is linked with a number of adverse outcomes over a persons lifetime. Through some of the work casey has done with first lady mccullough, there is a significant relationship between Food Insecurity and Child Maltreatment, including child abuse and fatality. As you can see from this slide, states with high levels of Food Insecurity, child Food Insecurity, tend to have higher rates of Child Maltreatment states below the national median, as shown by the cluster on the top right hand side. States in the bottom left have both lower rates of Food Insecurity and Child Maltreatment fatality. Next slide, please. In addition, states with high for the insecurity generally have higher rates of reports of maltreatment and substantiated reports of maltreatment. Next slide. The reason this is important is because of some of the things that first Lady Mcauliffe already mentioned. Experience is a poverty and experiences of poverty and achievement and have been shown to affect the architecture of childrens brains. Early experience matters. Brains develop differently if they are under prolonged toxic stress. That affect is just emotional or social. Prolonged stress can cause structural change, impacting brain function and damaging physical health later in life. Many of you are familiar with adverse childhood experiences, which was conducted by the cdc and Kaiser Permanente in the 1990s. Individuals who had more of these adverse experiences when they were young physical, sexual or emotional , abuse, parental divorce or neglect, including not having enough to eat, were at increased risk for heart and lung disease, depression, alcoholism, and other health issues. Next slide, please. This morning, we are here to talk about some of the successful efforts to address child hunger, and certainly virginia is making a difference , with its no kid hungry virginia work. In addition, alabama has also had success in numerous areas. It has emphasized summer feeding programs with over 1000 sites to serve almost 3 million meals to 100,000 children last year, more than double the number of children they fed in 2012. The states Child Welfare Services Program has developed an automated daily interface with education that identifies children in foster care and enrolls them in the Alabama School program. Child welfare provides Flexible Funding to each office a child , welfare staff can provide emergency food or nutritional purchases for families to prevent them from entering foster care. You should consider who you can partner with, whether it is tapping a federal agency for technical assistance, or better using an existing funding stream. Next slide. These integrated cross functional approaches are critical to improving the safety and well being of children. Tools that allow funding and flexibility to support what works are most important. One key tool in this work has been waivers which allow states to be flexible with their federal Child Welfare funding and try preventive supportive approaches before families are in crisis. A program which is up for reauthorization this year. Would encourage you to look at your own department, such as health and education, to make sure they are collaborating with services, Child Welfare, housing, or other relevant systems. Addressing child Food Insecurity assures your state and residents are safe and ultimately contribute to your States Economic ability to contribute economically. This is where your leadership comes in. Thanks to first Lady Mcauliffe virginia, and in thanks for all the work all of you do to protect and care for your citizens. Thank you. First Lady Mcauliffe thank you very much. [applause] hugh . Hugh thank you. I am chef, which means i am a very successful dishwasher. That is a little different. I have a job to do, i leave the lead a kitchen and my job is to cultivate talent in that kitchen. Your job in your community and in your states is a much bigger role. You have to cultivate a nextgeneration, and the only way we cultivate and educate and have kids Pay Attention in schools is to make sure they are fed. In the early 1940s, we started flour, wheat, and grain, primary for world war ii, and we won that because of the initiatives like that. Now, we have initiatives in your states to give children a chance to Pay Attention and first period monday morning, which is critical to the future of this country, and to me to find a workforce and put 250 people in georgia, and it is important for me to have a generation that comes after my current work force that will Pay Attention and learn and be activated and inclusive and understanding and have abilities. If you walk into a Public School in athens, georgia, where i live on monday morning, and the kids not paying attention, it is because they have not eaten in 48 hours. This is the most abundant nation on earth. We cannot abandon a generation by not feeding them something that costs a very small amount for paying back for a future generation. This is a huge issue. , this powery urgent of breakfast. What it does and having breakfast within the classroom and having the inclusive nature isa meal to empower a child just amazingly beneficial to all of us. I have two dollars over there. I have two daughters over there, they are well fed. [laughter] hugh we go through that parental malaise of oh, she is just hungry, that is why she is hungry, or i am just that is why i am being crabby. We have the ability to fix this and i need to to get competitive with each other on how well you are doing in this issue because i want you all to win and peer pressure is a good thing. So when we see progress being , made, it is amazingly interesting that in 2006, 44 were needing breakfast, and we have changed the numbers significantly. We cannot stop now on progress. If you are funding with our local schools, 10 years ago, it had to be pop top cans so kids can feed themselves on the weekends. If that is the america i live in, we have work to do. We know we have work to do. I am a chef. Working at a restaurant is like working in an er with food, it is triage every day, sometimes big issues, and sometimes they are small. In each ofig issue your states and municipalities everyday. Neil programs breakfast in , classroom programs, this is an easy fix to get kids to Pay Attention. I send my kids to a wonderful Public School, not because they are going to get the best education necessarily, but because i have time to devote to that school and engage with my community, as a lot of parents at that school do not because they are not working three jobs, having trouble making choices whether to pay the electric bill or put sustainable good food on the table for their kids. Public schools, we need that help in feeding the kids every day. It is critical to the future of this country. So, as we empowered and fed kids and supplemented grain with nutrition and high, thin, and vitamin b, and vitamin d, we need to do the same things now and in the contemporary way. If you do not feed them, they are not going to be able to compete in an agile business world. We can put that team on the field and it is your job to make inure those initiatives each of those states happens. My belief in community and what do would be the same whether i a am chef or dentist. I happen to be engaged with food, so this is an issue that is dear to my heart. Where i live in georgia, i started an initiative to change home economics. That is about teaching kids basic attainable life skills. The only way they Pay Attention is if they have actually eaten something but if they can poach , an egg and do that later in life, that is great. It is open source. You can ask me about it. [laughter] q you have a job to do. Hugh you have a job to do. You have the ability to push these agendas and to do it for all these kids because that is what we need to do, to realize. This is a team america, and we , need to feed all of them. If we are going to be competitive sports team, and make sure you follow nutrition. If you are a competitive and Agile Society and community, you need to do the same thing. Over there, you can go get ants on a log. It is good. We changed the game in nutrition and now i need to push forward even more. This doesnt stop. We continue. Thanks, and with your help, we can end hunger. Thank you. [applause] first Lady Mcauliffe rodney . Rodney good morning and thank you, governor sandoval then , and first lady dorothy mcauliffe. She is my champion, hero, and of course, her husband knows that i have an affinity for his wife. He has gotten over it. [laughter] rodney they have done a wonderful job, let me tell you. I want to highlight a few things that have been said. I really have nothing new to add , but i will add it anyway. I will use up all the time this young man did not use for his. [laughter] rodney so we can solve the , problem of childhood hunger. There are people in every state, every community, working hard together to make that happen. But we cannot do it alone. We need your leadership, the type of leadership that governor mcauliffe has given in virginia, the support, and the actions. We need action. I speak to you as a Food Service Director from the 10th Largest School district in the country. 188,000 students, 149,000 meals a day. When you think of fairfax, it is an affluent School District, so you think, well he does not , need help. Only 26 of these kids come from affluent homes. 26 represents 53,000 students. The question is how many have to , be hungry for us to act . I am the product of an at risk family. I know hunger far more intimately than i care to discuss, and im not here to put the heartstrings. Im here to tell you a story that in 40 years in the Food Service Industry in 27 School District, i come to tell you that we can end hunger. We have the ability to do that. Programs like the breakfast in the classroom, summer feeding, supper in the evening those , programs bring money into the district that are already there at the federal level, so what we did in fairfax is we now have breakfast in the classroom and one of the alternative methods of feeding kids that i think that should be enacted in every School District around the country make no mistake about it the traditional Breakfast Program in schools is a failed model. It has been a failed model since 1966. 30 of our children nationwide participate in breakfast and the current model allows a fiveyear old to decide whether theyre going to go play on the playground or eat breakfast. You would not let your fiveyearold make that choice. Why would we let other children . We need to make sure that our children are fed and ready to learn, and only when they are fed and ready to learn are they going to excel. I struggled in school through the 12th grade, but when i made it to a grown man, and i could eat and work, i started to excel. I believed i was incapable. There is a certain indignity with hunger that no one should know, not in this country or ever. And certainly not on my watch. So in fairfax, we have initiated , breakfast in the classroom and in 20 schools. We have the Supper Program in and we have daily outdoor 33. Barbecues that start on the d ands after school en runs through the friday before School Starts up. There is a safety net. No hungry children that will be left in fairfax over the next three years or four years. We are going to add 10 sites this summer and 10 the following summer and we will work with libraries, and housing projects, and other entities in the community that are concerned with the health and wellbeing of all of our children and their parents. It puts employees to work. I have employees now working 12 months a year. Hunger does not take a vacation. And neither does my employees bills at the end of june. So, by feeding our children and providing an opportunity for our people to work, it also stimulates the economy. And during the summer months, we are able to strengthen our farm to School Program which i , have been active in for well over 20 years now, and what we have been able to do is provide the small farmer who is struggling with an untapped market. We can buy that undersized fruit, we can buy that blemished vegetable, and we can put money, not only into the local economy, but help sustain a small farmer. These schools are wonderful entry points in the battle against hunger because we can , provide breakfast, we provide lunch, we provide supper, and we can ensure that there are Backpack Programs for kids to take home, and here in virginia on the snow days, we have a plan to ensure that kids have the access to meals. That is the america that i want to live in. That is the one that i know you all want to live in. I know the great work you do and the responsibilities you have with your support, with your support, we can overcome this problem. It is solvable. There is Prudent Solutions that work. 35,000 students in fairfax now eat in the classroom. We have taken away the stigma of going to the cafeteria because that is where the poor kids go. We have provided communal feeding because many of these kids come from one member families or one adult in the household. We have kids talking to one another. Imagine being a kindergartner, on the first day of school, and you go in the cafeteria, and here are these big sixthgraders, and you are overwhelmed and probably dont go back to eat. We take all of those obstacles and barriers away, and we have been able to provide for kids. So, i want you to know that what i hear from teachers is that kids are, and no, kids are calmer, and no it is not , disruptive. Any teacher, if you are an educator in this room, and i have been married to an educator know that when a kid says their , head hurts or their tummy hurts, what they are really telling you is that they are hungry. Were not asking for new money out of states. There is money at the National Level that is untapped. California was sending back a lot of money because we were underutilizing the Breakfast Programming. We were underutilizing the summer feeding program. I would encourage you to go back to your state and ask your folks what are we doing . Because this is a very solvable problem. I have spent 37 years at it and i can tell you that i intend to spend 20 more, no kids, not on my watch will be hungry in virginia, and if i have my way, we will continue to develop a model that can be simulated deleted across the country to demonstrate. Dont let Food Service Directors tell you that it cant be done. That we do not have the money yet. We cannot do this. In 23 years as a Food Service Director in california, a program of mine lost money. One year. In virginia, we lost 1. 5 million for the Nutrition Programs the year before i came. In my first year, and i started on the first day of school, we turned a profit of 1. 1 million and i expect that will grow to 3,000,000 to 5,000,000. Dont be fooled. There is funding there. If we treat programs with care and attention that we should, we can end hunger in america. Thank you all very much. , [applause] thank you, rodney taylor. Thanks to all the presenters. We will have time during the roundtable discussion to ask questions of these experts, but right now, we are going to hear from first Lady Kathleen sandoval, and then from some of our other state leaders working in this area as well. Thank you very much. Kathleen sandoval thank you to the panelists for your focus on ending childhood hunger. What im going to discuss is the legislation we passed in the state of nevada. We had a lot of support from strength who had been wonderful , to help us push the agenda to end childhood hunger. One of the first things that happened in the state of nevada is that the governor created the office of Food Security council , which really had a huge impact on us to be able to develop programs we wanted to see implemented and policies we wanted to see changed. One of the first things we decided to focus on was to be able to feed children breakfast after the bell. We had heard a lot of comments about teachers saying it could not work. We heard about the principal saying it would impact on education time, so the first thing we did as groups was go to many of the schools in the rural and urban areas, and talk to the teachers and principals and students about the impact it would take to do breakfast after the bell. When you hear this, everyone says that, everyone says this we , found out that most people didnt feel that way. Most people wanted to see the change, and most people wanted to see the impact of having breakfast after the bell. The next thing we did was work with the Governors Office and the chief of staff to see if there would be funding that we would be able to tie to a bill. The governor was very generous and put 2 million in grant money went towards the school there is a doghouse. [laughter] no. The bill was specific to require with 70 greater of free or reduced lunch to have access to breakfast after the start of the school day. It was definitely a bipartisan Kathleen Sandoval it was definitely a bipartisan effort. It was easy to get a lot of people on board. The people who were not on board, some of the comments we got back were easy to change their minds. We had one gentleman who was not interested in passing the bill because he was mad at the food lady who served his child in the school, and so we were able to get by that one very quickly. We also had comments about it is not our role or our job. It should be a parents job to feed their children, and one of the things that we discussed was that it is everybodys job to feed every child. I think we all of us had one in time where we are trying to wrestle your child out of the house, shoving them a waffle what we found was that a lot of the parents that are used to feeding children at home, this gave them another opportunity to ensure that their child got a nutritious breakfast in the morning. Based on the legislation, we have seen a huge change in our schools. 109 schools out of the 111 in the eight eligible districts received 1 million in grant funds in 20152016. It increased breakfast by serving more than 84,000 students statewide. We serve 3. 6 million more breakfasts in one year compared to the year before. Which, once again, the return on investment, we brought 8 million more to the state. Because of this, we saw a huge difference in the children on a daily basis. One of the things that i saw that was most alarming to me when i was going to the schools is, i was talking to this little boy, and he got up and was like, i have got to go do something, and he went to the condiment table and started shoving his pockets full of ketchup packages, and i looked at him afterwards, he came back and apologized. He was eight years old. I said, do you love ketchup . And he said, i take it home for my mom so she can make tomato soup. And that was so alarming to me. That we live in a country where we cannot feed a child. And he is relying on making sure he gets to school to get tomato ketchup packages to make sure he has dinner at night. Everyone said this is something that is easy to make an impact on. We are able to work with other andes that had made changes be able to look at their models so we did not have to reinvent the wheel, pull from their best practices and bring federal dollars into our state as well as being able to feed more children and making sure they are not hungry. So as vice chair, i challenge , all the first ladies to look at this issue. We are going to come back next year. Im going to find out where everybody is at what changes , may have been able to make in their state. This is a winwin. It is an easy area to target. We have great partners and all you have to do is call them. They will help you in any way they can. You have great resources amongst us. I know first Lady Mcauliffe and myself would be more than willing to be able to work with you and provide any support or any information we can, because this is something that is easy to do. It is easy to make a difference in your state this way and it is easy to feed children. So i really hope everyone in this next year focuses on that as one of their initiatives that we can come back and share amongst all of us changes we have made. Thank you. [applause] thank you, kathleen. Thank you. And, yes. I appreciate that call to action. We know there are strong arms in this room with powerful persuasive partners in this room, and i really appreciate all that you have done. I think we can hear from governor hutchinson now from arkansas please on their efforts in arkansas. Governor hutchinson im so delighted with you calling attention to this. And i look around at the first ladies in this room and i realize the power that exists to accomplish great things, and i appreciate this emphasis. The first lady of arkansas, i wanted to introduce, susan, and susan has taken on as her Initiative Children who are home,t to abuse in the and the childrens advocacy center, she has raised a lot of money and drawn attention to that. She has an incredibly big heart. I want to mention a couple things that we are working on in our consumer in arkansas. We have a happy healthy Arkansas Initiative for improving healthy outcomes for our citizens as part of that, a plan to increase the participation in breakfast after the bell. This was a little bit of a new program for me so i went out to Daisy Bates Elementary School in arkansas, little rock, very historic school, and the poverty areas of little rock, and i saw a breakfast after the bell program, and it was really amazing to see how neat it was, how the students responded to it and how it was not stigmatizing was for everyone. Everyone who went to that school had the breakfast, and to hear the principal talking about what a difference it makes in their learning after they have that breakfast, and they have a full tummy makes a huge difference to them. We have increased the number of low income students who are participating in the breakfast after the bell program. Right now, arkansas ranks number seven in the number of students that participate in the program which is moving up. We are pleased with that. Right now we have 63 of low income students participate in breakfast in the classroom or after the bell programs. Our goal is to get that to 70 so we have a way to go. Anyone in the eligibility program, we want to show the change and dynamics in the state. In 2014 we had four schools participate in the Breakfast Program. We went from four schools to 139 schools. That is a fairly dramatic increase in a short amount of time. I want to finally mention a program that may exist in other states but we have the arkansas gleaning project. It is one of the solutions for the need for Fresh Produce. It is a partnership between the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance i want to give a shout out to kathy has done such a great job at leading the alliance a partnership between them and the society of saint andrews. This has proved successful in increasing the amount of produce gleaned annually from the arkansas fields. 2016, 2. 1 billion pounds of Fresh Produce was gleaned for arkansas families in need, and sent and since the project began, more than 9 billion pounds have been gleaned. Lesson. At Old Testament we apply that to the field in arkansas to make sure that the food banks have Fresh Produce, as well as pantries across the state. So much is to be done but thank you for this reminder of our responsibility to those who are so vulnerable. Thank you. Thank you, governor. Just a variety of ways that we can . We can tackle this challenge. In virginia, we work in a bipartisan way to create a tax credit for farmers who wanted to donate produce to our food banks. Also another really important way to get at this challenge is get at this challenge of healthy food access for all. Our montana governor . There you are. I would like to commend the first Lady Mcauliffe and first Lady Sandoval for taking this on and challenging all of us. This is a job that is intangible. Because we wont always know the impact that we have had. I could stand here and know that [indiscernible] get breakfast in school. I know that we have increased after school meals by 44 . We have 224 sites feeding our kids. If we hear from a local school board, we go school to school and we will hear that it causes a bunch of disruption. What we do is look them up with the principal a disciplinary time of day. Once they brought breakfast in the classroom, the disciplinary issues went away. Or if a school says they cant afford the base infrastructure we have actually partnered with over 30 different businesses so far and they said that we will pay for that. 225,000. We will give grants to individual schools to take care of it. We have 140 of our schools with breakfast in the classroom. And we often talk about numbers. We hear so much about numbers. But talk to one of the little kids who are putting the ketchup packets talk to the kids about the difference that it makes. Once you move breakfast into the classroom, removing the stigma, and actually talk to the educators about the differences in performance and attendance. I commend you for doing this because it is a solvable issue. And it is a tangible issue that we, as governors and first families, can address in making meaningful differences. And it may be the simplest thing we can do. Go out and find ways to feed kids. Thank you, governor. Thank you very much. Now, the first lady from pennsylvania . Can we call on you to talk about your experience . Oh, im learning. Thank you. Im intrigued and im taking massive notes for pennsylvania. Im learning from all of you. Thank you for sharing your great wisdom on this. One of the things i wanted to talk about was generating support in pennsylvania for this program. One of the things we started when tom first got the job was to bring legislative spouses together so that we could get to know each other. Very quickly, we wanted to do something constructive. And what was interesting it was making food available to schoolchildren. This was something that straightaway, many of the spouses were interested in and talk the rest of us. Last year, it is bipartisan. The spouses all came together and donated food for food banks in the region of harrisburg in and effects to be good neighbors, where the capital is. But we are also looking to go to each of our communities to share this message. This year, we are bringing in speakers to talk about this program. So that legislators and their spouses can go back to their communities and talk this program up. From my place, i am trying to generate support and also to go out to schools and other institutions to talk about the importance of this program. It is something that i think is very important and again, thank you for giving me ideas that i can take back to become more effective in being a messenger. To be more effective. Thank you, very much. Thank you. I do believe, doesnt the governor have an initiative in his budget this year . I do. But why would i want to add anything to what the first lady said . Thank you to governor sandoval and the first Lady Sandoval. You too, terry. [laughter] we are making some progress. Would you talked about as far as being hangry, and rodney, would you pointed out, there is still more to do. That is where we are in pennsylvania. I have made investment in education my top priority. To that end, i have added hundreds of millions of dollars to basic education in pennsylvania. But we have a lot to do. One in five children in pennsylvania struggle with hunger. And this statistic alone is nothing short from heartbreaking. As you point out, it has an arms impact on our educational opportunities. Kids who are hungry dont do as well. They start off at a disadvantage over those who are not hungry. Ask any teacher and they will to you that food is a basic School Supply like books and pencils. When kids struggle with hunger, it is hard for them to learn and it is hard for teachers to teach. I announced a 2 million appropriation or a proposal to appropriate 2 million for School Breakfasts at our schools in pennsylvania. And that, if successful, will leverage millions of federal dollars. We just dont use them in the states. That is a smart investment that will help to make our Education System better. And it is really important that we do this. As francis pointed out, we have supported food banks and soup kitchens for a long time. Something that is really important to us. There is no excuse for anybody in pennsylvania or the United States to be hungry. And we cannot afford this in our schools. Thank you for doing what you are doing, first Lady Sandoval, first Lady Mcauliffe. Thank you for making sure our children go to school ready to learn. An important part of this is making sure they get the nutrition they need. Thank you very much. Thank you, both. And it is a comprehensive approach. That is the point that is coming out from the governors. Are there any other yes . Thank you. We appreciate both of the first ladies and your work on childhood hunger and certainly, your spouses. I have to remind the group that we are proud of all of the first ladies and the work they do but we are also proud of our first gentleman. Entlemen. [laughter] [applause] my husband i had the opportunity to be the chair of the nga years ago and one night my husband came home and said, you didnt tell me that i would be the chair of the first ladys group [laughter] and i said oops, i didnt know that. When he became the chair of the first spouses group, he said, you also didnt tell me that i had to have a nationwide initiative. We had another issue we had to deal with. My husband grew up as a fourthgeneration farmer and he is an attorney right now. We try to figure out what was the nationwide initiative from spouses. I said, what you like to do best . And he said, i like farming. So he launched his first German Initiative First Gentleman Initiative which was Food Security, the farm to Table Initiative through our state and also talking about food safety in our nation. So i was very proud. So i had to give him a plug, because sometimes we forget that we have first gentlemen. There are not very many of you but we are very grateful for you. One of my first initiatives, even before i was elected governor, was to launch a food drive, statewide. And it was before i was even inaugurated into office. We are in our eighth year of having a food drive in our state. We have raised over 8 million meals for our students. And the Backpack Program for our children is very important. In raise a lot of money. It raised a lot of money. And it brings a lot of money and we have a lot of different corporations and groups and schools and students involved in bringing in cans of food or nonperishable items so that we are able to fill up food pantries through our state. If a child goes to school hungry, they cant focus on their learning. And when they go home on the weekends, they dont have any food. If they have a backpack full of food, it helps the whole family. So i appreciate you focusing our efforts on childhood hunger and the different initiatives going on in our states. And i appreciate all the spouses, man or woman. [laughter] absolutely. I learned from the first gentleman, that was my first year at the nga. That was a great program. We all learned a lot, as we do every time we come together. Are there any other comments . Yes sir, from rhode island. We do exist as first gentlemen, i can assert that. In rhode island, my wife has emphasized food in all respects. I married into a big italian family, so food is the way i was accepted by the family. My fatherinlaw said boy, that guy really eats. He must be worth keeping. But perhaps because we have two young kids and i was formally an Elementary School teacher, i know how important food is and how important breakfast is to get kids off on the right start every day. One example i wanted to highlight in rhode island that has been particularly successful is summer meals. It is often overlooked. Summer is the time of greatest Food Insecurity and hunger. Kids who are in school during the school year and received a free or reduced lunch, they have the benefit in the school year and lack it during the summer. It is also a time when food banks have their lowest amount of contributions. Companies are not thinking about it, holidays and so forth. But federal law, experts know, it provides eligibility for the kids who get reduced lunch during the school year, to get summer meals during the summer. So it isnt a matter of funding or support, it is a matter of distribution and will. And overcoming some of the challenges to get to the places that can then take advantage of the great food. Rhode island has been successful in expanding we have 200 sites we are a small state growing from 300,000 meals to almost half a million this past year to serve kids in rhode island. It is mostly at park and Recreation Centers, community centers. The key challenger mentioned by several speakers there is a stigma to going to get a meal. So you need, for kids, to be able to have a place that they want to go. Where everybody can go. So the park and Recreation Centers in the summer are wonderful. All the important things that my wife and i believe strongly in, and they also can provide the meals. Federal law as that it isnt just the children who are eligible, but in many communities that meets certain income requirements, anyone who goes gets a meal. So you have none of the checking. We are hoping to increase that more this coming summer. I am the chair of the Summer Meal Program and my wife is a huge supporter. We are looking forward to showing off rhode island to all of you in this summer from the nga meetings. We are proud of our food tradition. Very committed to accepting the challenge of Food Insecurity. I just wanted to offer that example. Thank you. Underscore point to. Re the percentages welcome back. When we first had the opportunity to serve, talking about federal funds that are available and unlocking the federal funds. 50 of children who are eligible are receiving breakfast. So were leaving half behind. Afterschool meals, supper afterschool meals, summer meals, snacks whatever you want to call it, only 1 of eligible students in virginia are receiving that meal at the end of the day. And when we talk about summer, it is 13 . Only 13 of eligible children are finding the meal in the summertime. And what share our strength does, and has from the very beginning as a resource, has shown that that is pretty much the average across the country. So it really is imperative that we figure out what are the local barriers in the School District that are keeping us from unlocking the federal resources . We know our local School Districts need all resources that we can bring to educate children. As Governor Wolf said, clearly, this is part of the educational toolbox. Making sure that children arent children are nourished and can learn. I will give a plug. The largest investment in the governors budget we are providing and allocating funds to Public Education because we know it is so important for the future workforce and the health and future of our state. But if we are going to do that, we have to make sure the kids have all of the tools that they need to learn. Teachers and children. And nutrition is a critical part of that. So, does anybody have questions for the panel . Governor malloy . Governor malloy i just want to share a tool you might be interested in. We have increased our reckless program by about one third in a relatively short. Of time. Short period of time. We concentrated on the schools that had 20 or more of the children getting free or reduced lunch. We campaigned, generally, for the first two years, but i started sending letters to superintendents and individual principals in schools where they had not started a Breakfast Program. The letter specifically asked the superintendent or the principal to reply to me the reasons they werent doing that. Frankly that was the largest driver of that one third increased participation. No one wants to put down on paper that there is teacher resistance to using a classroom that way. Or that we just dont want to bring in people early enough to get that done. Or we dont want to overfeed kids. No one wants to put that in writing or say why they are not extending a service that doesnt cost them any money. I would urge folks to put somebody on your staff or if you dont want to do it, have your education commissioner ask for individual explanations my school why they are not extending a program that feeds kids in the morning that is, for all intents and purposes, free. Very, very good point. The principles really do make the leadership is where it all happens. Our School Nutrition directors, i would say most, if not all i have worked with, and it is a very thats a group of unsung heroes, i would say, rodney, that want to increase participation, want the best cafeteria programs, want helpful, nutritious food to serve to kids and they are offering it on pennies per day, but the principals are the ones making the decisions about the school day in the classroom and in the cafeteria. That is where we found our greatest gains, working directly with our school principals. Yes . Im donna walker, from alaska. Just to comment on the 13 participation in the summer, ive had the opportunity to volunteer in several of our summer programs in different cities. One of them the boys and girls club, capturing the audience that is there for the summer program. Another was in a park. Another was at a church in juneau, alaska. The one that had the most participation was in the church in juneau. The kids, it was an army of kids that came. One of the things they did was the congregation donates bikes. A drove of them coming up on the bikes that were donated. It helps them to access the services. One more idea i might throw out for your consideration that we did. My wife and i made a Youth Leadership council. So, we have about 15 kids from around the state each year, from seventh grade onto senior year in high school. We bring them together once, for two days, we spend a little bit of time with them, we say you go back to your community and design your own project. We have had everything from 5k races to raise money to the local Backpack Program to kids making movies and school assemblies. Its something that empowers the kids and their ends up being Community Discussions across the state driven by an eight grader. The eight grader educates the entire community, and it is something pretty easy to do, if anybody is interested in seeing what we have, we can certainly get you that packet as well. Really great idea. We early on surveyed our we have a foundation for healthy youth, which is a Government Agency focused on youth and health. We asked those students to survey, amongst themselves and their high schools, whether hunger and eating breakfast was an opportunity that they would like to have more focus on at school, whether they were hungry. Many focused on younger children in terms of the School Breakfasts, because we think High School Kids have the ability and the will to make sure they have an opportunity to have breakfast. But the stigma i would argue attaches in high school is even more significant. Rodney and i talked a lot about that. High school it is a model that works well, the Second Chance breakfast between first and second period. In virginia, the high School Starts very early. I remember our daughter getting on the bus at 6 20. We used to call it the spooky bus. The kids were half asleep, wearing hoodies, they looked like zombies. Many children, and adults myself, we were not hungry first thing in the morning. But having that opportunity i saw it in lynchburg high school. 438 students going through a grab and go line in eight minutes. That is because of the dedication of the cafeteria workers and principals to make sure that those children had an opportunity. There are a lot of innovative ways. There is no onesizefitsall in any of this. But there are so many resources. Kathleen, we can all share them together, about how we did it, how we worked with superintendents and educators in our state to raise awareness. Really it is i think awareness is the most important thing, the federal resources are there, how do we unlock them . And bring the resources to our local School District to benefit kids . But we have a great panel here. Are there any questions for the panel here today on anything you have heard . How rodney does the barbecue in the summer every day and makes it fun . Again, taking the stigma out of the families that need a meal. The other important thing that we didnt talk about was educators talk a lot about learning over the summer, so many of these organizations, the boys and girls club, the ymca, we partner with the state library in virginia to provide summer meals. Those are also great enrichment for these kids. So, whether it is reading or, you know, playing sports, lots of opportunities for enrichment that these students wouldnt otherwise have opportunity for in the summer. We know that summer is long in virginia. Three months. Thats a long time for the kids were talking about. Sir . More of a question for rodney, im curious about the barbecues at lunch, how you keep that healthy and what type of food do you provide . We offer five choices. Hamburger, hot dog, chicken patty, rib patty, or hotlink in california. Or in virginia a sausage patty. I brought the idea of taking the outdoor barbecues to schools because i wanted to smell up the school with fresh food to make kids hungry and change perceptions about what school food is. I spent half my life in the private sector and i was surprised to find out that in the Public People beat up on the work that i do and i wasnt going to allow that to happen. We wanted to develop a model that would work. Having fresh food, we are doing that in virginia with rotisserie chicken, as well as a line of sandwiches and salads inspired by chefs so that when a kid goes to one of our middle schools are middle and high schools, they feel like they are in chipotle when they get in the mexican food line and so forth. The daily outdoor barbecue in the summer came about because of budget cuts. We had to scale back the summer intervention programs in my former district in california and i thought the barbecues worked so well, why dont we do those in summer . Its a lot better than handing the kid a brown bag. We often look at programs and think that it is a failed program. We dont look at how we deliver the program. We go into the neighborhood and we make it something that families could bring their blankets and kids could enjoy the beautiful parks that are available to them. So, that is what we have done now in virginia, i ran across one unsolvable issue, which was they wanted to know what what were we going to do when it rained in the summer . I said hell, i dont know, it doesnt rain in california. [laughter] we were very fortunate, it only rained before the last day of summer and we made it through. But the idea was to change the dynamics and make it more festive, to encourage physical activity. Its been very successful, to date. Yes . I cant see. We have been on the job for 56 days. [laughter] how dare we insinuate that barbecue might not be healthy . [laughter] concerned about that to start with. Kristen has already hit the ground running on this issue and one of the things that is beginning to happen, as was mentioned earlier, was food in the classroom, removing the stigma of going to the lunch room. I wanted to ask those of you who are putting this together, whether there has been or how much you have been concerned about instructional time and how you get around those potential roadblocks . Because i do like the idea a lot. Theres always some pushback. We got the support from the governor and from the first lady. Thats i cant tell you how valuable that is in influencing pals, board princi members, and the administration. One of the carrots that i pals wasfor the princi that you do the breakfast in the classroom, every kid eats free. All the staff eat free. That one over the custodians. Won over the custodians. As long as the breakfast in the classroom was at the school, people wanted to know if we could afford to do that. The answer is that when you are improving your participation from 18 to well over 80 , yes, you can afford to offer that. So, im always looking for ways and i agree with you, every problem is solvable. Most of the issues that you hear dont really exist anywhere outside the minds of adults. Kids are very flexible and they adapt to whatever we do. I approach, answering your question, 20 of the principles now have breakfasts in the classroom and one is a Program Improvement school that was really working hard on improvement and didnt want any new projects at this time. But told me dont take us off the list. So, we have another 20 schools that we are going to target for the 20172018 school year and we hope to see that every kid that may be at risk of having access, has access, but that every kid has a free meal. I would echo the comments and add two things. One, the presentation of the evidence that this can impact test scores is certainly helpful in making sure that principals see that it is important. The leadership or of a first spouse or governor makes a huge difference in the motivation that School Leaders feel. One of the things we did in nevada, the state department of education really worked with the superintendents, principles, even the teachers, providing them lessons that they could do as the children were eating, related to food, whether was math lessons, english lessons, science, so that they could be providing instruction while the children were eating. It was pretty impressive how much these teachers thought outside the box and included that is part of the learning process of that they didnt lose that education time. And in virginia, our office and our team, we have a mantra. Yes, there are all of these adult barriers, excuses, but at the end of the day if we are respectful and resources, no one can argue with the sheer fact that we are there to help, to bring resources to feed hungry children. At the end of the day, i dont think anyone has an answer or an excuse that we cant overcome. We are respectful, every locality is different. We need to work with Different School sizes. Is it graband, go . Breakfast in the classroom . At the end of the day the mantra is that we are feeding hungry kids. And i think, now, this is been a great discussion but i think we have to wrap it up. As kathleen said, we are all available to each other, thats the wonderful thing about building these relationships, but right now i want to turn it over to my husband, terry mcauliffe. Thank you. Lets hear it for dorothy, kathleen, everybody. [applause] a really great presentation. I apologize that i was a few minutes late. I had to do one of the morning shows. They asked if we would extend our time. I said no, we are going back, our wives are waiting for us. I want to thank all the panelists. Give them a great round of applause. I appreciate all the work they have done. [applause] rodney, i appreciate your i appreciate you have an affinity for my wife. Thank you for that area i love my wife dearly for some many reasons but can you possibly imagine being married to me for 28 years . [laughter] she has a special place in heaven just for that. People getting into politics to help people, that is what readership is all about. That is what leadership is all about. As governors we have such an opportunity. This is the first time we have ever done a joint session with the governors and the spouses. Why . We all realize that kathleen, dorothy, we were all discussing the planning of this meeting. Its a partnership that we couldnt do alone. In virginia, dorothy has driven this project. This is teamwork and i want to thank all the spouses that were here today. This is a great session. As i say in virginia, 5 million more meals. 100 of the at risk children are part of the cep program. We have made tremendous progress three times now with our children in virginia that now get summer meals. This is important. I talked constantly in virginia about building the new virginia economy. Right now, 36 thousand open jobs 36,000 open jobs in virginia, in ciber, starting pay 88 starting pay, 88,000. You have to build a talent pipeline. I had 149,000 jobs open last year in technology. The pipeline starts early. I put an extra billion in their last year for redesign on the high schools, k12. None of that matters if the hungry to learn children are going to school plain hungry. This is so important. The other final thing i would say, and i hear the hesitancy with superintendents. Sometimes it is hard to change the bureaucracy of a State Government that has been doing it forever. I was very vocal when i met our superintendent. I was very vocal when i met the principals. They are always coming to me for money, but heres an opportunity to bring it back to the community. 35,000 people in fairfax . Do the math. Its about two dollars per breakfast. 70,000 per day. That is 350,000 a week. It is 1. 4 million a month. It comes back to your community and runs through your community and a lot of it is locally sourced agricultural products. It is also a gigantic economic driver, in addition to doing the plain right thing. I want to thank our former secretary of agriculture, tom vilsack, who was such a champion of driving this program. Appreciate all the work that everybody has done. Finally i want to thank the leadership of kathleen and dorothy and what they have done it this session. We are going to take a quick five minute break and then something new, never been done before. Four hot topics at the Plenary Session to talk about what we four hot topics at the Plenary Session to talk about what we need to do. Thank you to everyone for being a part of it. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you today by a cable or satellite provider. Members of congress returned to me president s day break. The week ahead, well see more of president trumps nominees being considered. For more information, we spoke with the capitol hill reporter. Senate staff member the senate set to full on it before beginning monday with wilbur ross, the commerce secretary. Tell us about the status of each of the nominees and how they will fare. Niels it looks like the nominees that are up before th