DELAURO APPLAUDS INDUCTION OF ISABELLE KELLEY INTO USDA HALL OF HEROES

Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Ranking Member on the Labor, Education, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, praised the induction of Isabelle Kelley into the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Hall of Heroes today.

Begun in 2000, the USDA's Hall of Heroes honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the agency and its mission of providing leadership on food, agriculture, and natural resources based on public policy and science.

Isabelle Kelley, of Ellington, Connecticut, graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1938 with a degree in agricultural economics, a first for women, and went to work at the USDA in 1940. There she administered the "Penny Milk Program," which provided half pints of milk to school students for a penny, and was one of the first nationally organized initiatives to supplement the nutrition of schoolchildren.

In 1946, Kelley helped set up the National School Lunch Program, which is still available in schools all across America. In 1961, she was appointed by President Kennedy to a four-member task force to design and implement a national food stamp program. And in 1964, after the Food Stamp Act was signed, she was named the first Director of the USDA's Food Stamp Division, becoming the first woman to direct an action program and the first director of a consumer and marketing division at USDA. Today, the program is known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and helps provide vital nutrition aid to over 44 million Americans.

"In this current economy, with unemployment at 9.1% and the poverty rate at its highest point in almost two decades, it is all the more important that we recognize and honor stateswomen like Isabelle Kelley – a woman who knew the power of the federal government to make a difference for people, and who worked hard every day to see that all American children get the nutrition they need," said Congresswoman DeLauro. "Isabelle forged her own path forward, and dedicated her life to ensuring Americans, and especially our children, had access to the nutrition they needed to thrive and be successful. Generations of Americans have benefitted from her efforts, and I can think of no better recipient for this honor."