06/28/05 Fruit and veggie export expansion

Northwest lawmakers have been pushing for years to increase the use of our region's fruits and vegetables in federal school lunch and nutrition programs. CRAPO: We basically have a pilot project underway right now in which eight states are included. The pilot project U.S. Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho is referring to places domestically grown fruits and vegetables in school settings for snacks, while teaching the importance of eating healthy. The program currently serves the Northwest states. Crapo and a group of twenty colleagues sent a letter last month to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies, asking for increased funding for the program to expand it to encompass all fifty states. CRAPO: This would significantly expand and increase the demand for fruits and vegetables which will be very helpful to our agricultural markets, but will also help us to address the issue with regard to our students and the healthiness of the food which with we are providing them. Under the expansion proposal, funding for the program for each state and tribal entity would remain at $1 million dollars. The Subcommittee last week appropriated $2 million dollars in discretionary funds to expand the program from eight to ten states & adding to Utah and Wisconsin to the list of states that includes Washington & as part of its marked up Fiscal Year 2006 Agriculture Appropriations bill.