Dr. Sharma Goes to Washington
Few of us will ever have the chance to testify in front of a Congressional committee on Capitol Hill. Well, one of our very own here at Brighter Bites has, and we asked her to give us a behind-the-scenes perspective on what really happens…
On Tuesday, June 14, Dr. Shreela Sharma, Brighter Bites Co-founder, received a letter from U.S. Representative Mike Conaway, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, asking her to testify on behalf of Brighter Bites as part of the Committee’s top-to-bottom review of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The letter requested that Shreela send 25 hard copies of her written testimony, bio, CV, and disclosure of federal funding by Monday, June 20. Needless to say, Shreela found all of that a bit daunting!
Over the next week, she spent nearly all of her waking hours preparing the requested dossier, going through the proper channels to get permission to testify from the University of Texas, and finding someone to hand deliver the documents to Capitol Hill on June 20. Shreela teamed up with Brighter Bites partner-in-crime Lisa Helfman to draft the testimony Shreela would deliver at the hearing and then received feedback on it from theUniversity of Texas System Office of Federal Relations, Feeding Texas, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Sysco, and Cornerstone Government Affairs over the next few days. Allison Roberts at the UT System Office of Federal Relations generously volunteered to make all the copies and run them over to the Congressional Clerk’s office. Shreela should have been relieved, but it was already Monday. The hearing was scheduled for 10:00am on Wednesday! There wasn’t much more time…
On the evening of Monday, June 20, Shreela arrived in Washington, D.C. with Brighter Bites Executive Director Sam Newman accompanying her. Shreela never thought for a minute that the next day would be easy, but really, what could possibly be left to do? All of the documentation had already been delivered to the House, right?
Wrong! Bright and early the next day, Shreela and Sam met with a brain trust of Brighter Bites supporters at the USDA, including Lillian Salerno, Deputy Under Secretary for the Rural Development Mission Area; Katie Fink, Director of External & Public Affairs, Food and Nutrition Service; Jerry Mande; and Bryan Zulko, who together gave Shreela a primer on Congressional hearing decorum and a rundown on what to expect. And, Shreela finally found out who would be joining her panel at Wednesday’s hearing: Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, Senior Vice President, Community Health & Equity, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI; Ms. Susan Foerster, Founding Member, Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators, Carmichael, CA; and Dr. Jo Britt-Rankin, Associate Dean & Extension Professor, Extension Committee on Organization & Policy, Columbia, MO. A distinguished group, to be sure.
Later in the afternoon, Shreela and Sam met with Alice Gomez at Cornerstone Government Affairs, whose job it was to prepare Shreela for the hearing over the next three hours. You see, Shreela’s written testimony had no page requirement, but her oral testimony, the one she would deliver the next day at the hearing, was limited to just five minutes – not 5:01 or 5:10, but 5:00 on the nose. Shreela practiced her testimony many, many times over the next three hours and prepared for an onslaught of queries from committee members the next day with the Cornerstone murder board. That night, Shreela went back to her hotel room to prepare even more. She read her oral testimony 10 times aloud, trying to read it faster and practicing Alice’s suggested pauses and areas of emphasis.
The next morning, Shreela, Sam, and the Cornerstone folks walked over to Capitol Hill. Shreela says she was finally nervous at this point, but she didn’t have too much time to think about it. By the time they got through security, it was about 9:30am. Several people were already waiting in the lobby outside of the hearing room, including Brighter Bites supporters Allison Roberts (Shreela’s heroine from UT), Feeding America’s Director of Nutrition Assistance and Budget Policy, Robert Campbell, and representatives from the USDA and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Shreela had no idea what the room was going to look like, and when the doors opened, she walked into a very grand, bright blue room with oak desks, walnut chairs, an impressive Victorian chandelier, and a gigantic balcony with huge pillars and breathtaking views of the Capitol Building off the hearing room. She said you could feel the history, surrounded by enormous portraits of former Chairmen of the House Committee on Agriculture. Shreela said that it not only gave her a feeling of the past but also a sense of the weighty decisions that have been made on Capitol Hill for hundreds of years.
Shreela only had a few moments to soak it all in before she was introduced to the other panelists, trained on how to turn on and off her mic, reminded to keep an eye on the digital clock at her desk when she spoke, and told where the Democrats and Republicans sit — left and right respectively, believe it or not.
Just as she was about to take a deep breath to relax for a moment, Chairman Conaway walked into the room. True to what Shreela had heard about his adherence to the clock, the Chairman tapped his gavel at 10:00am and the hearing began.
After the Chairman’s opening statement, Shreela delivered her own testimony in 4:55! All Shreela could think was, “Sam is going to be so proud of me!” And she breathed a sigh of relief.
But it wasn’t long before she was in the hot seat again. After each of the panelists had her turn, Chairman Conaway asked Shreela three questions right out of the gate. Shreela says that she was grateful for all of the preparation over the last several days, because she went into “autopilot” and just kept telling herself that she had to get across three points whenever she spoke:
- Brighter Bites is creating a demand for produce, empowering people to achieve better health, and tackling the challenges of food waste.
- We have metrics to prove our success.
- We are creating a solution with our partners.
The hearing lasted nearly two hours. When asked what surprised her the most about the experience, Shreela said she was pleasantly surprised by how well Brighter Bites was received. Democrats and Republicans latched on to the Brighter Bites ideal of increasing demand for produce, achieving better health, and mitigating food waste all at the same time. She went on to say that people are impressed when they understand that the Brighter Bites model utilizes partnerships with experts who already work with produce, nutrition education, and low income populations. Brighter Bites brings them all together to establish an efficient, sustainable, and replicable program model.
Following the hearing, Shreela posed for a few photographs on the balcony with a couple of her co-panelists, ate a celebratory lunch with Sam, and flew home to Houston.
Shreela is currently on vacation with her family and cannot be reached for comment.
