Blogger Jill Richardson asks: What does Walmart have to do with improving school lunch and fighting child hunger? Richardson was responding to the witness list for a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing next week chaired by Walmart Senator Blanche Lincoln.

From La Vida Locavore:

When Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-WalmartArk.) took over as chair of the Senate Ag Committee, one friend (who knows what he’s talking about) assured me that life was pretty much the same at the Ag Committee and that Lincoln was going to do an okay job on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization. After all, Harkin can always take his chairmanship back after the 2010 election — if Lincoln even keeps her seat! So what does Sen. Lincoln do when she’s given the chance to hold a hearing on major child nutrition legislation? Here’s the hearing line-up:

Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry
Full Committee Hearing Notice
To: All Committee Members

Title: Reauthorization of U.S. Child Nutrition Programs: Opportunities to Fight Hunger and Improve Child Health
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Place: 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Witness List

Panel 1
The Honorable Tom Vilsack,
Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC

Panel 2

Dr. Margaret Bogle, Executive Director, Delta Obesity Prevention Research Unit, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Little Rock, AR

Mr. Rich Huddleston, Executive Director, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Little Rock, AR

Ms. Rhonda Sanders, Executive Director, Arkansas Hunger Alliance, Little Rock, AR

Ms. Jennifer Smith, Director, Compliance, Walmart, Bentonville, AR

Richardson rightly asks: what the feck? Look closely at the Panel 2 makeup. Doesn’t anyone in the other 49 states have anything to say about Child Nutrition Programs? And just what exactly will Ms. Smith have to say on the topic?

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 1729 by Jeff Hess and is filed under Federal, Groceries, Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.