Protein and so forth. We tried to reformulate the School Lunch Program to provide more food fruits and legibles vegetables, less fat, sodium, and sugar. We improved programs to provide more healthy choices. We have used our Step Education efforts to educate those who are on the Food Stamp Program how they might be able to stretch their dollar a little bit better by purchasing fruits and vegetables. We have done a study suggesting they are not as expensive as some people think they are. We have expanded opportunities to use snap cards of farmers markets so folks have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Looking at several other initiatives we will launch this year. So that has been jinn the terms of particularly the school lunch and School Breakfast program, dealing with the obesity issue and the hunger issue. They are twin evils. Too many of our youngsters are suffering from either one of those. They do not perform as well and school, they have chronic diseases to take into adulthood , which obviously impedes their quality of life, and increases healthcare costs. There is quite a bit of activity. We have a super Tracker Program that over one Million People are currently using that provides tips and information on how you might be able to make healthy life choices. It is on our website. I get an email once every couple weeks about whether or not i am doing what i said i would do with fruits and vegetables. So i think there is a concerted effort. I think you probably see a bit more promotion of the in the upcoming months as we launch School Nutrition month. That is an opportunity for us to emphasize this. The last thing i would say is we have seen a dramatic increase in gardens and Community Gardens and school gardens. I often comment that i appreciate the first lady gets a lot of attention on her garden. We now have 1800 peoples gardens throughout the United States and around the world. These are usda sponsored efforts. Working with keep america beautiful. As a result we donated nearly 3 Million Pounds of produce to food kitchens and food banks. So she gets a lot of attention for her garden, but i guess she is first lady so she should. We do have 1800, mentoring gardens. I would just add that i think first of all i applaud the secretarys efforts here. I think we have made great progress. We have a long way to go. We are at the 20 yard line with 80 yards to go. I think we all have to recognize that far more collectively than we do today, how much of a challenge we have in changing our Healthcare System to a wellness system. That means far greater degree of attention to exercise as well as nutrition. Nutrition really has two components. It has the combination of foods we eat, but it is also a factor of our portions. Our portions are so much bigger. We have to begin to address that part of it as well. We have the caloric intake for children, leading to a situation where Life Expectancy is actually going down in the country. We can turn that around. But it is going to take a lot more education and a concerted effort around nutrition and taking personal responsibility for ones health. In a wellness system rather than a health system. The honor of the last question. Wait, i will go way over there. I am from fresno, california. This question is for the entire panel. iqr m . . 1so . I want to do more. I am embarrassed to say i have some connection with that. One of the things the governor asked me to do was to relay a story i relayed last october. I will do that. I grew up in eastern south dakota along the minnesota border. The plains are so flat that if your dog runs away, you can see him for several days. [laughter] corn and soybean country. My grandparents came from denmark in 1903. They were teenagers. Got married in iowa and bought a small farm in south dakota, where my father was born three years later right in the farmhouse there on that firm where they had bought. Farm. Dad was bought born was born profoundly deaf. I had to laugh when i was with him at a doctors appointment and the nurse tried to take his temperature was one of those birkenau the monitors. Of course, that had no ear canal the monitors. Of course, he had no ear canal. Back in those days, it was still farming with horses. He was one of four children. Two were profoundly deaf. What was going up, dad would tell me how they would get up in the morning and they were Still Using Oil lamps when he was young girl. Young. They would get up in the morning when it was still dark and my grandfather would milking cows for milk for the household. My uncle howard would harness the horses and get them ready for the field work and that would feed the cattle and the halt and they would come back in for breakfast. That was the beginning of their firm base. Farm days. Dad talked about in those that was the beginning of their farm days. They would harness the horses through a wagon and go to turn into their business. On the way home, it was about 10 miles involving several corners and turns. They could just go to sleep because the voices knew the way home. That was horses knew the way home. That was farm life in those days. They attended school 25 miles away. Was to been far to go in those days every day. It was too far to go. They rode the train and they will live in sioux falls at the dorm and come home on some weekends. In those days, technology was limited and there were few services for the deaf. My mother was born in Council Bluffs i wish theCouncil BluffsCouncil Bluffs, iowa. She was born profoundly deaf. She had severe hearing loss. Only if she had her hearing aid and was looking right at you. Mom and dad met in their late thirties and got married and settled around on our family farm. . Parents were gone by then dads parents were gone. Mom and dad lived there in the same firm house where dad had been born. Both of my parents taught me the value of hard work and i saw their pride and so sufficiently. When i was going up, we had a herd of milk cows. For me, it was up every morning at 5 00 to milk the cows with dad and back at it every evening after school. The farm was not big enough to making going of its with just that quarter going of it with just that quarter section. Dad had an offfarm job, too. I remember when the cabinetmaking shop where dad was a cabinetmaker closed. Dad could not find work. I was little, but i remember still today, parents argued in sign language, which is vigorous and quiet. [laughter] how they argued about unemployment. Dad did not want to accept unemployment. Mom was worried about food on the table. Dad found a job as a janitor where he ended up demonstrated the same loyalty to the employer. He worked there for another 10 years. And my mom worked as well. He was trying to make firm payments at the time. Farm. I do not know how he kept it up, but he did she was trying to make farm payments at the time. I cannot know how he kept it up, but he did. There were a few products offered to help the deaf. A microphone was caught in the crib when i was an infant. Kept in the crib. When i would cry, it would cause a switch to cause a light two so that my parents would know i was crying. A light to flash so that my parents would know i was crying. In this world, people with disabilities often develop higher levels of determination and a compass men because they have to. And accomplishment. With the support of their friends, those disabilities can drain just as we all do with what has disabilities or not. Can dream. We are all challenge. If we aspire low, we will achieve to lay low. If we aspire higher, we will achieve higher whether we have a disability or not. Some would get people with disabilities and say he cannot or she cannot. They focus on the disability. It is more important for all of us. It is what is inside. Persons with disabilities are no different from those without disabilities. They are the same in the most important way. We have our own well. Will. A person is going to fail if they think like a failure. When my parents were first married and my mother became pregnant a year later, people in our own family wondered how they could raise children, these two of people. Deaf people. How would the children learn anything . How would they learn to talk temple they were focusing on the disability. Fainted how would they learn to talk . They were focusing on the disability. My sisters and i were high achievers. Our pens and still seeing right to values in us. Our parents instilled the right values in us. My sisters were at the top of their classes aunt clara successful in their careers, but i went into politics. Sorry, mom. My father helped linda and me when we build our home. We bought the farmhouse and move in with them and build our own home with our own hands across the yard. I would never have done that if the fund had not set, you can do this. We hired someone to dig i would not have done that if my father had not said, you can do this. I would never have had the courage to try that if my dad had not said, we can do this. And we did. When i was growing up, my sisters and i were the interpreters for dad and mom when outsiders came to the farm or when we went out in public. If dad had an appointment with the doctor, i would go and interpret. Or when outsiders came to the farm. More often than not, if i was not there, they would communicate by writing on a piece of paper back and forth to communicate. When a Television Show was playing, that would watch the pictures, but the conversations or inaccessible to him. If he wanted to contact one of his the french, i would have to contact a neighbor so friends, i would have to contacting able to walk over and find out if the french friend was at home. Or dad would just go 25 miles. Today, if that were still living, i could call him on my cell phone and dial a Relay Service and reach an mean the operator and the relay operator with, thats internet protocol operator and a light would flash on top of the television in mind that would pick up the remote and he would push the button on the remote and instead of watching the cbs evening news, he would be looking at a video interpreter say, hi, dad, its dennis calling, how are you . I am on my phone in the office and he is in the living room. Changes to not happen overnight. Dad had to adapt to that. He could not watch television in his underwear anymore. [laughter] the point i am making is that technology has provided meeting tools to workers with disabilities. Tools. New whether they are video Relay Services or electric wheelchairs or whatever they may be, a lot of technology has made the world of work more accessible to citizens with his ability than it ever was before. In south dakota, in our Custer State Park, the State Game Lodge has a guest week named for president calvin coolidge. In the days before air conditioning, he wanted to get out of hot and humid d. C. In the summer. He went to our Custer State Park any life is so much he stay for three months and made it the summer white house. One of the swede is named for kelvin clueless. I mention that because he says something was i think isnt one of isuites is named for kelvin of the suites is named for calvin coolidge. He said the world is full of educated derelicts. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Today, we talk about and recognize people like my parents, who surmounted disabilities and achieve success in the world of work. These are people who have worked harder than most. They had to. They are people with determination and courage. I am unearned 1 i am among them. We also honor their employers. I am honored with i am among them. These employers know that hiring people with disabilities is good business. Adversity builds character and people with character and good employees. Thanks for giving me your time and attention. I have enjoyed this panel. I have enjoyed being with you last october, jack. I thank all of the players here who open their minds and job sites to which employees with disabilities. By helping them, you are helping yourselves. Your efforts also unlocked doors formally formerly closed to workers with disabilities. You give people like my parents a chance to live their lives with dignity. Theiro provide for d little boys back home. Thank you. [applause] governor, thank you very much for that powerful, a personal story. You can tell by the reaction how much of a buddy is tinged by that. How much everybody is kept by that. I just want to ask you one short followup question. Because of your own experience and what you have seen and what you have left, what is one thing you as a governor can do to make employing people with disabilities more possible, more realistic for employers in your state and other states . I have been impressed with the past the steps that are offered to talk about the leadership from the top and involve people with disability involving people with disabilities. Implement first is a policy that your state is going to follow. Employment first. Citizens with disabilities the best service the government can give is help with finding employment. To help parents understand that if they have a child with disabilities, they can inculcate in that child the notion that i am expected to work when i become an adult instead of the notion that, i am disabled and i cannot work. It is all in ones head. For those with disabilities who wants to work, we should be racing to find opportunities for them to work. It is usually beneficial. Mutually beneficial. I would like to turn next to governor malloy of connecticut. You have worked with walgreens. You want to tell us about your experience. I spoke with the prospect of walgreens and we use that Distribution Center as a role model to bring people in and out of there on a constant basis. We have centers being built nearby. It is our hope that everyone will model walgreens on that. We have taken a holistic approach. One of the big problems for people with disabilities and can work is that frequently they can only work part time. A twist between working part time with no benefits and causing you to a choice between working part time with no benefits and losing benefits because you are working. We have designed a particular program. If you are a person with disabilities can you get a job, we are still going to provide the Health Benefits that you need that are not provided to your pull employer. Provided through your employer. You want people to have the experience of working. This is a commonsense approach to make sure people with disabilities do not have to choose between but the they are going to see their doctor or whether they are going to work. In the walgreens situation, they provide the level of benefits. A lot of employers are not in a position to do that. We also have a connection to work program. We work with people with disabilities to link them to employers who are willing to employ them or give them a shot or give them an interview. It is an activist program. All of our social Service Agencies are heavily involved in this. We have another Program Content ability that works across disabilities and age groups to remove all the barriers that prevent people from being able to work. Connectability. We provide Information Tools and Technical Assistance to job seekers and we offered to help train a employers on how to interact and how to employ a person with disabilities. Lots of people have a desire in the heart to do it, but they do not have the experience to do it. We are trying to provide a system that will speak areas to employees employee is to hiring people with disabilities. We try to make sure people can learn from a distance to get the skill sets they mean that they will be able to use in an employment situation. We are taking this very holistic. I have all of my social Service Commission to get the on a regular basis. We talk about employing people with disabilities. I mentioned this yesterday. The scene of the reasons we are interested in doing this and are so committed to it in connecticut are twofold. We have seen an increase in disabled veterans as a result of these two wars. That pipeline is going to continue long after the wars are over as people get to a level of rehabilitation that might allow them to be employed parttime or fulltime. We all it to these patriots to make sure that i have a child. We owe it to these patriots to make sure they have a job. We should do everything in our power with respect with that. There is another issue. More people are being diagnosed with all the testing that goes with autism. The numbers have gone up significantly diagnosed with autism. People with severe altus and autism will be able to work at least parttime. We have to make sure the job pipeline is there. Warehousing people. We have done that in our country for a long time. Some of our states have made Real Progress on that away from large warehouse to smaller where houses. The best place to spend your day if you have a disability or if you have autism or if you are a veteran who has the engine is in a job fulltime or parttime. Who has been injured ins in a job in a fulltime or part time. Job to bring down the barriers. I would like to turn to the governor of iowa. You have your own set of experiences. Judy, thank you very much. Id like to acknowledge emily, who contributed coffee products that are part of the greenbacks that goodie bags that mrs. Markell is committed. She is a disabled Business Owner and is successful. We have embarked on a program in i will call the skilled iowa initiative. This is designed to improve little skills. Middle skills. We have a metal skills gap in our state. We travel throughout the state and we talk to employers that have Jobs Available, but they cannot find people with the right skill set. It is a publicprivate partnership. We have gotten some private sector people to contribute to help people upgrade their skills. This program is not just limited to people with disabilities. We are specifically focusing on maximizing the opportunity for people to improve the