PROFILE PLUS.....More About: Eric Bost

It’s been six months since Eric Bost, Secretary Ann M. Veneman’s pick for under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, came to Washington DC (the August 2001 issue of the USDA News carried his complete biographical sketch, following his selection to that position).

Since then he has visited all six regional offices under his jurisdiction. “That afforded me the opportunity to visit the vast majority of my staff that are responsible for our programs and they are absolutely wonderful people and do a great job, day in and day out,” Bost said. He also had high praise for the staff in the “agencies I am responsible for along with other staff persons I’ve had the opportunity to interact with in the Department. They are very knowledgeable, very professional and very responsive and generally very nice and friendly and that’s a real plus.”

Bost oversees the food stamp, school lunch and breakfast programs as well as the women, infants and children feeding programs. His agency is also responsible for food distribution through various programs and community food security. President George W. Bush has proposed spending $41 billion on these programs in the coming fiscal year. In addition he wants to allow legal immigrants to receive food stamps if they are otherwise eligible.

“The program will be implemented by state offices around the country and they feel very positive about it,” Bost said.

What’s his favorite experience thus far? “During National School Lunch week I went back to the elementary school that I went to in North Carolina--that was just a wonderful, wonderful thing for me.” The school is Coltrane-Webb in Concord, N.C., where Bost’s parents, who’ve been married 61 years, still live.

Bost observed that “the food we have in the school lunch program today is more nutritiously balanced than when I was a kid, plus kids have many more choices. I visited a high school with a salad and fruit station and a sandwich station. Another had a grill where you could order hot dogs and hamburgers.”

Last Book Read: “The Painted House” by John Grisham

Hobbies: Photography, reading, saltwater fishing
Favorite Food: All seafood
Last Movie Seen: “In the Bedroom” with Sissy Spacek (“Not a feel-good movie, but still excellent”)
Favorite Breakfast: Pancakes or waffles
Priorities in the Months Ahead: Reauthorization of food stamps, which is part of the farm bill. Developing a nutrition campaign to help tackle obesity in this country. Reauthorization of child nutrition programs which is coming up in 2003.

--Patricia Klintberg