Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Teen Suicide Linked to Sex Spying; Heavy Wind and Rain Causing Problems on East Coast; Fisher-Price Recalling Millions of Toys. 30,000 McDonald's Workers Could Lose Health Benefits; Soldier Suicides On the Rise; Jobless Claims Down and Wall Street Off to Good Start; Hollywood Legend Tony Curtis Dies at 85; Rocking Out with Rush

Aired September 30, 2010 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: So nice to have you here.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you in the NEWSROOM. Good morning. Yes.

PHILLIPS: And we all know why. You had a chance to catch up with some old buddies that you haven't seen in, what? Three decades?

ROBERTS: It's been a long time. It hasn't been three decades but it's been a long time.

PHILLIPS: Well, what was so special for me, not only to see how excited you were to team up with them, but how excited Rush was, Getty and Alex and Neil, to see you and when they said come up on stage and jam, we had to top off the show with this.

ROBERTS: I guess you could qualify that as geezer rock.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Now you -- in all honesty, you said that was, like, the highlight -- a highlight of your life.

ROBERTS: My musical life. I mean there are lots of other highlights in my life, of course.

PHILLIPS: I hope so.

ROBERTS: Yes. But in terms of this -- you know, a frustrated guitarist who's always sort of had that dream of being a rock n' roll star -- I know you always wanted to be a country singer. You know, to be able to exercise that Jones even for four minutes playing limelight with them on stage --

PHILLIPS: It is great.

ROBERTS: An awful lot of fun.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to catch up, talk more about that. And I loved when I look over at Getty and I said, how did he do? And he goes, he did great.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: So we'll talk more about your interview.

ROBERTS: I think they were just being nice.

PHILLIPS: No. Well, they are incredible guys.

ROBERTS: They are. Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll talk a little bit. Thanks so much, John.

ROBERTS: All right. You bet.

PHILLIPS: All right. We've got that, of course. And also this hour, we're talking with Tom (INAUDIBLE), the top chef asking him about what your kids or grand kids are eating in school.

And Fisher-Price has recalled millions of toys from tricycles to highchairs. The company says they're dangerous.

And a stormy, dangerous weather system is beating up the East Coast from Florida to Maine. Rob Marciano is on top of all of that for us.

Let's start out, though, first with a report that actor Tony Curtis has died. This crossed the wires just early this morning and we're being told that "Entertainment Tonight" is now reporting this.

Curtis, as you know, was one of those Hollywood legends whose career started when he got out of the service after World War II. One of his most famous films, "Some Like It Hot" where he pretended to be a millionaire to woo Marilyn Monroe.

He also played a runaway slave in "Spartacus," acting with Laurence Oliver and Kirk Douglas, and was nominated for an Oscar in "The Defiant Ones" in 1958. Curtis is also the father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

And we're going to have more on this story over the next couple of hours. Again, "Entertainment Tonight" reporting that Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85.

A college freshman apparently leapt to his death from a New York City bridge after police say that his dorm room sex encounters with another man were secretly broadcast online.

Tyler Clementi said good-bye over Facebook simply posting, quote, "Jumping off the GW Bridge. Sorry."

He was just 18 years old. Away at college for less than a month. And now two other students are accused of electronic peeping toms, allegedly responsible for posting Clementi's intimate moments for the entire world to see.

Here's WPIX's Arthur Chen. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARTHUR CHEN, WPIX REPORTER: Authorities tonight may have recovered the body of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi. Witnesses spotted the freshman on the walkway of the George Washington Bridge last Wednesday. His car was discovered nearby with his wallet, I.D., cell phone and laptop inside.

Just days earlier authorities say his roommate, Dharun Ravi, also a freshman, secretly taped Clementi's sexual encounter with another man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He (INAUDIBLE) to himself. They never fought. I never seen them fighting. I never even seen them ever talking. So --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He was Dharun's roommate --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roommate. So there was really nothing about it. So this is all surprising to all of us what was happening.

CHEN: Danielle Birbaum (ph) lives in the room next door in their Rutgers room. Amongst those astonished that the two fellow students have been arrested and charged with invading Clementi's privacy to play out over the Internet.

Sources tell PIX 11 Ravi lined up his webcam and placed a Skype account on auto answer. On his twitter account he says, quote, "Roommate asked for the room until midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

Molly Wei, Ravi's high school classmate's computer was allegedly used to access Ravi's webcam through Skype and his twitter account suggested a second attempt to peek into Clementi's life. Two days later this message, quote, "Anyone with iChat I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it's happening again," end quote.

This followed days later by a Facebook status this time updated by Clementi saying plainly, quote, "Jumping off the GW Bridge. Sorry," end quote.

The medical examiner's office now will conduct an autopsy. Sources say the parents of the accomplished violinist may have been unaware their son was gay.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You knew that Tyler was gay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Because I live next door to him. It was just like obvious. He had the guy in his room. I saw that. Like --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did the guy come in more than once? Or was it just that one time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I only saw him once. (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was he a student or --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. He was a little bit older.

CHEN: If authorities are able to prove a connection between Clementi's death and the alleged invasion of his privacy, the 18-year- old will join a disturbing growing trend of young students across the country who are cyber bullied to the point of collapse.

Some perhaps intentionally cruel, some perhaps carelessly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Now the prosecutor's office says that the investigation is ongoing but it says it won't speculate on extra charges against Ravi and Molly Wei. Dharun Ravi, rather -- Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei.

Parry Aftab is an Internet privacy lawyer and the executive director of Wiredsafety.org. She's joining me live from New York.

Now you know what I've been hearing for the first time so many Internet attorneys and I don't know if you feel this way, Parry, at this point but they're coming forward and saying, what's it going to take to show people how dangerous the Internet has become?

PARRY AFTAB, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WIREDSAFETY.ORG: Well, I don't know that the Internet is so dangerous, but these kinds of actions are. So abuse of the technologies is what we're looking at. And I am very concerned about it. We have laws in place and then in this case I expect that either the federal prosecutor or the state prosecutors are going to start looking at civil rights violations as well.

PHILLIPS: Civil rights violations, because the gay rights group Garden State Equality actually released a statement, saying, quote, "We are sickened that anyone in our society such as the students allegedly responsible for making this surreptitious video might consider destroying others' lives as a sport."

So do you think this could be considered a hate crime?

AFTAB: I think so. I mean hate crimes are a little tricky. They don't work the way people think they do. But it could be a civil rights case. And that was used in the Phoebe Prince case by the prosecutor. And I think that treating this as only a privacy violation is a sin. Tyler's life was worth far more than that and there are lot more laws that were broken here.

PHILLIPS: OK. Well, let's talk about the laws that were broken. And what could this man be held accountable for, Dharun, specifically, and then also, the young lady who allowed him to come into her room and actually call up Skype so this could be broadcast?

AFTAB: Well, I think we need to have the full facts but civil rights violations, wiretap laws, federal and state apply. And there are going to be a number of other things as far as harassment that may apply, as well.

So once we start digging into this enough, I expect there are going to be a lot more crimes that are going to be charged with.

PHILLIPS: And so -- could this case, because of how brutal it is and what has happened, somehow trigger any type of legislation or changes when it comes to -- and I know it's a kind of broad question but it could it lead to anything to somehow put restrictions or changes on the Internet?

AFTAB: Well, I don't know that the Internet needs more restrictions and I think we have the laws. We just need to make sure the prosecutors understand them. What we need to do here is change behavior.

And so I have teens who went to school, were in high school with Tyler and loved him in Ridgewood who happened to be my teen angels, my teen Internet safety experts, who across the country at their own universities are creating a program called "Step Up, Speak Out" to get college students to say, this is not going to happen again. Not on our campus or any campus.

And if we can change behavior, we can make sure that this won't happen again.

PHILLIPS: It's just atrocious that this man and young lady would even think of doing what they did. It's heart-wrenching.

AFTAB: It is such a loss.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

AFTAB: Such a loss.

PHILLIPS: It is. Parry Aftab, thanks so much.

AFTAB: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, Clementi's classmates say that he wasn't quiet and many people weren't exactly sure what his sexual orientation was, but nearly 9 out of 10 gay/lesbian/transgender and bisexual kids are harassed at school according to a recent school climate survey. And just this month we've learned of three gay school-aged children who committed suicide.

In Indiana, 15-year-old Billy Lucas was made fun of for being different for being gay. His classmates reportedly told him he should kill himself and he did. Police say his body was found hanging in a barn.

In Texas, 13-year-old Asher Brown shot himself with a pistol after he was bullied by classmates. A school district spokeswoman says that she never heard complaints but Asher's mom and stepdad told Anderson Cooper a very different story. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Why do you think, Amy, that the school district is now saying, well, look, we didn't know about it?

AMY TRUONG, SON COMMITTED SUICIDE: Because my son killed himself. And he's gone. And we can't bring him back and they realized what they did was wrong. They didn't take this seriously. And nothing's going to bring him back. And we have no reason to lie about the fact that we went to them for help. To make it stop.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And in California, a touching Internet tribute to a 13-year-old who died in the hospital days after he tried to hang himself from a tree. Seth Walsh had been in a coma since he was found unconscious in his backyard over a week ago.

Officers talked to some teens who allegedly made fun of Seth for being gay but they say no charges will be filed.

Bullying in our schools and now online. Why do kids even do it? And what can be done to put an end to it? An "AC 360" special report that you can't miss, it's beginning Monday night 10:00 Eastern.

Well, Congress has completed its last piece of business before lawmakers return home to hit the campaign trail. The House voted early this morning to fund the federal government for the next two months.

President Obama's expected to sign the bill before Friday when the new fiscal year begins. Now if the stop gap measure had failed, the government would have shut down.

And before adjourning, the House also passed a bill providing free medical care for first responders to the 9/11 attacks. Many first responders blame illnesses on toxins that they say they were exposed to at Ground Zero.

Most Republicans have complained the $7.4 billion plan is too costly. The Senate must still vote on that bill.

Prosecutors are revealing details of their case against the failed Times Square bomber. The FBI recreated and detonated the bomb that Faisal Shahzad tried to use, and like the field testing blast in Pennsylvania, the Times Square bomb did not explode back on May 1st.

Prosecutors say that if Shahzad had not been arrested he planned to detonate a second bomb in New York City two weeks later.

The Army's largest base reeling from four apparent suicides in just one weekend. Soldiers taking their own lives. It's a disturbing trend. We're going to talk about the problem and what the Army is trying to do about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Let's take a look at the impact the heavy wind and rain have had on the East Coast. A tree toppled onto a home in Florida, and flooding all the evidence -- and flooding, rather, you can see the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the steady, heavy rain just washed out the roads there, and a lot of people who head to the airports along the East Coast could find and delays and cancellations caused by the bad weather. Forecasters say that parts of North Carolina have already seen up to 20 inches of rain in the last three days. Rob Marciano's watching it all for us.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's crazy stuff, as far as the amount of rain that they've seen. This is by far the most rain that they've seen in at least a three-day period. This is just for 24 hours in Wilmington, 7.33 inches. Remember, two days ago they had over ten. So, this is, yes, it's tropical-related, but it's not hurricane. And it's -- you know, so the last time they had this kind of rain was back in 1999 when they had Hurricane Floyd roll through.

What you're seeing down here, though, that is remnants of Nicole, which actually looks better than it ever did. It's kind of getting together with some energy here, slamming up against the front, and the recipe is for all this rainfall. And on top of that, we've got the threat for seeing tornadoes across the mid Atlantic from just north of Wilmington, all the way up through the Delmarva.

Tornado warnings -- or watches are in effect in this area, and we do have one warning that's in effect for St. Mary and Calvert County across parts of Maryland There it is right there. That cell moving up towards the north at about 50 miles per hour. So these are moving very, very quickly. And the rainfall continues to roll in to this area.

We have flash flood watches and warnings posted from the Carolinas all the way up to parts of Canada here.

And you mentioned the delays at the airports. These are still very impressive. The ground stop released at LaGuardia, but it's still two hour and forty minute delays there. Ground stop at BWI and at DCA, as well. So, if you are traveling today, take it easy out there. Certainly, by car, there's numerous flooded roads out there, especially in the Carolinas, and we've got a while for this rainfall to get through. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Rob.

Parents listen up. Fisher-Price is recalling millions of toys for safety concerns. The recalls include baby play areas with inflatable balls, tricycles, and small car toys. The company has also recalled nearly a million highchairs after children were cut by the legs of the chairs. If you want more details, just call the Fisher- Price hotline at this 800 number. 800-432-5437.

30,000 hourly workers at McDonald's could lose their health benefits. The fast food giant blames the Health Care Reform Act. We'll tell you more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Soldiers in danger, at risk. Not on the battlefield, but at their own hands. We're learning this morning that just this past weekend, it appears four army soldiers took their own lives at Fort Hood in Texas.

But as you know, because we've talked about this alarming trend of suicides here on this newscast far too many times, this isn't necessarily a surprise. Soldier suicides have risen each of the past five years. Just a couple of months ago, the Pentagon actually released a report on record high military suicides, 239 soldiers and reservists died by suicide last year. And there were more than 1,700 suicide attempts.

Soldiers are battling depression, stress, medical and relationship problems, and many times, drug abuse. And as you can see, all of that is taking its toll on our men and women in uniform. Clearly, more has to be done.

Now, let's take you back to Fort Hood. Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr on the story for us. She's joining us, actually, live from New York. So, Barbara, we're hearing about these four suspected suicides in one weekend. And that's tough to comprehend, because there's already been 14 suicides at Fort Hood this year. What's going on?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the question, Kyra. Fort Hood, Texas, the army's largest base, some 50,000 troops stationed there. And what is going on?

As you point out, the rise in suicides in the US military, especially the US Army, very striking over the last several months. Commanders really don't know, besides the sort of obvious questions of substance abuse, relationship problems, stress from being deployed to war zones. What is causing this tragedy? It is of such concern, the commander of Fort Hood came out yesterday and offered some thoughts about it. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM GRIMSLEY, MAJOR GENERAL, US ARMY: I will tell you that every one of these is tragic. The rate is higher than any of us, anybody in a leadership position anywhere in the army wants. But I will also tell you that the leaders from the head of the -- at the Department of the Army level all the way down are absolutely committed with themselves, with the services, with the support programs to continue to tackle this issue head on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: But what can the leaders really do? Fort Hood was supposed to be the showcase for suicide prevention efforts in the US military. Several months ago, they began a number of programs there, trying to build up resilience, if you will, amongst the troops. Offer counseling, encourage them to get help, offer chaplain services, medical services, psychology services, all of that.

But clearly, it is not working to the extent the military wants it to. Are there any new ideas out there? Not right now, according to commanders. They're just going to keep trying to work away at this tragedy. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: We'll keep covering the story and the issue and keep pushing for change, as well. Barbara Starr, thanks so much.

Let's check our top stories. The economy slightly better than expected. Initial jobless claims fell 16,000 last week from the previous week. Still, 453,000 Americans filed for the first time.

"The Wall Street Journal" reporting that McDonald's could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly workers. The restaurant wants the government to waive a new rule of the Health Care Reform Act to keep those workers covered.

And "Entertainment Tonight" reporting that Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at his home in Nevada. We're going to take a look at his life and his legacy this hour. Tony Curtis was 85.

(SILENCE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It's the last day of the quarter and the month and, for Wall Street, the numbers are looking good. The Dow on track for its best September performance since 1939. Alison Kosik of the New York Stock Exchange with the details. Hey, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra. Looking back on this month, it really has been an unusually good one for investors, thanks to some upbeat economic reports. And today, we're getting more of it. Stocks turned higher after the latest reports came out on economic growth and the labor market. The final reading on second quarter GDP shows the economy grew at a 1.7 percent pace. Sure, that's sluggish, but it is slightly better than the previous range.

Meantime, new jobless claims, they fell by 16,000 last week, coming in at 453,000. That shows that the pace of layoffs is slowing.

And finally, Kyra, last week we told you about Allied Financial temporarily freezing some foreclosures because the bank admitted that some employees signed off on foreclosure documents without properly reviewing them. Now, JP Morgan is reportedly freezing 56,000 foreclosures because of the same problem. The bank is reviewing the documents to see if anyone was foreclosed on who shouldn't have been. We reached out, but JP Moran isn't commenting. What a mess. Kyra?

PHLLIPS: All right. Alison, thanks.

We're getting some sad news in this morning. "Entertainment Tonight" reporting that Tony Curtis has died. Curtis was one of those Hollywood legends, as you know, whose career started when he got out of the service after World War II. One of his most famous films, "Some Like It Hot," where he pretended to be a millionaire to woo Marilyn Monroe. He also played a runaway slave in "Spartacus," acting alongside Lawrence Olivier and Kirk Douglas, and was nominated for an Oscar in "The Defiant Ones" in 1958. Also, as you know, Curtis is the father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking top stories.

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at his Nevada home. One of the most famous films "Some Like it Hot". Tony Curtis is dead at age of 85.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il promoted his youngest son to general. He's got no leadership experience and is unknown to the world stage.

Former President Jimmy Carter could leave a Cleveland hospital today to resume his nationwide book tour. He's being treated for a possible viral infection.

And time now for latest news from "The Best Political Team on Television".

CNN's senior Congressional correspondent Dana Bash in Washington at the desk; what's crossing, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there Kyra, well first, a preview of a speech that House Republican Leader John Boehner will give later this afternoon. That's first up on the ticker. We are told he's going to talk about his personal vision for how he would run the House of Representatives should the GOP win control on Election Day.

He, of course, would be the presumptive Speaker if that were to happen. And speaking of the Speaker, second on our ticker, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Kyra, she is actually somebody who is quite liked by most people in her party and the House Democratic rank and file. They -- she raises money for them. She knows the name of their children and grandchildren but there is one member who is not necessarily thrilled.

It is Walt Miniki. He's from a conservative district in the State of Idaho. He says that he's not even sure he would consider voting for her if -- even if Democrats lose seats in November.

And excuse me, last on the ticker, his name is certainly easier to spell than Murkowski but Mike Castle says he is not going to run a write-in campaign for Delaware. He lost, of course, the Republican primary to Christine O'Donnell. He made clear in a statement that he does not think it is right for people in Delaware to go ahead and do this. So, no write-in campaign for Mike Castle -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Dana Bash, I'm going to start making sure that your producer brings you a bottled water every time. Because I feel like I'm the one that gets you choked up. This only happens when you're talking to me.

BASH: I'm trying not to cough. I have a perpetual -- perpetual cold.

PHILLIPS: That has been of yours -- you need to be taking a better care of you. Come on now.

BASH: You make -- you make me verklempt, Kyra. Now I can cough.

PHILLIPS: There you go. Be comfortable.

All right. We'll talk to you again in one hour. That's when our next political update is. And a reminder for all of the latest political news, just go to our Web site, CNNPolitics.com.

Well, flash back 50 years ago. And you remember yabadabadoo, right? Well, that's when you heard it for the very first time. The cartoon, "The Flintstones" debut in prime time September 30th, 1960.

There it is. It lasted six seasons. The show, lead character Fred Flintstone, well patterned after a popular comedy "The Honeymooners" of Jackie Gleason (ph). And you can still see the "The Flintstones" by the way in syndication.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, CNN is taking -- ok -- CNN is taking a cross- country food journey all this week and we've sent reporting teams to every corner of America and beyond. And our mission, to get fresh answers about how our food is grown and how the choices we make impact our health, our state of mind, our budgets and of course, the pure joy of eating.

So we've teamed up with the new CNN.com food destination "eatocracy.com" to bring you "Eatocracy: Mind, Body and Wallet". And this morning, we're looking at the millions of Americans who go hungry. More than 49 million Americans do not have consistent access to decent food.

That's one in six, the highest number since the government began tracking what it calls food and security over a decade ago. Blame high unemployment, high food prices, but even a more alarming statistic, one in four children lives in a home without adequate food in the fridge.

"Top Chef" judge Tom Colicchio, his wife and others are actually documenting families who worry about where their next meal is coming from. And here's the beginning of what the "Found and Hungry in America" is all about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This can happen to anybody. You think it won't happen to you? It might happen to you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm out of food already. You know, I have another week to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: "Top Chef's" Tom Colicchio, joining me now live from New York. I tell you what, Tom, how do you even begin to tackle a problem as big as hunger? Because there is no lack of food in our country.

TOM COLICCHIO, JUDGE, "TOP CHEF": No, there's not. It's -- it's become such a huge issue right now. When you're talking about children, 17 million children, live in -- in households that are food insecure. And I think one way to actually reach the majority of those children is to -- is to sort of focus on school lunch.

Making school lunch more nutritious, making it available to more people. I really -- I really believe that the answer is -- is school lunch should be free for everybody. But unfortunately, that's -- that's not the conversation that's on the table right now.

But we -- we need to do a better job I think preparing our children to learn and there's -- there's been a lot sort of talked about with the president lately about education reform. And I think part of education reform is also nourishing children so they're prepared to learn when they -- when they arrive at school, by offering school breakfast programs and also midday lunch programs that -- that are more nutritious.

And the problem right now with school lunch is that it's a lot of processed food, it's filled with fats, sugars, empty calories and children are -- they're consuming calories but they're empty calories and they are not being nourished.

PHILLIPS: Well, and you know, when we talk about hunger in America we've got to talk about all the kids who go hungry. I mean, so many kids that's their only meal is what they get at school. And you've actually got a personal connection to the issue of nutritious school lunches and you actually testified about it before a House committee. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLICCHIO: I'm also here as a son of a lunch lady. My mother Beverly Colicchio worked for decades as a cafeteria supervisor in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where I was born. Elizabeth is not a wealthy town and at the high school where she worked almost 70 percent of the students qualified for free or reduced-priced breakfast and lunch.

My mother told us that often the meal she served those kids were the only food they got to eat all day. It was upsetting to her that the budgetary constraints imposed by low federal reimbursements meant that schools couldn't afford much in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and doing some high quality proteins.

The cheapest food contracted out to the lowest bidder was usually the food that was on the menu and the kids ate it and they didn't have a choice or an option of refusing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: It's incredible to me that what your mother was telling you about decades ago is still a horrible problem. Kids still are only getting that meal as -- as their only meal and the food is still, I mean, awful.

COLICCHIO: It is. And -- and -- and again, we can fix this problem. Right now, there's a bill in the Senate that's asking for $4.5 billion over ten years to -- to address some of the issues with school lunch. It's not enough.

There is a bill in the House that's sort of got, you know, it didn't come to the floor that was asking for $8 billion. But the bigger problem with the Senate bill to -- a Blanche Lincoln sponsored bill, is that they're asking for $4.5 billion over ten years, but they're taking $2 billion of that from food stamps or from -- from -- from families that -- so essentially they're stealing from dinner to pay for lunch. Which is -- makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

So the bill is a good bill, it's a step in the right direction; we're beginning to address school lunch. It's the first time since 1973 that they're actually allocating more dollars to reimbursements for school lunch programs but it doesn't -- it doesn't call for enough.

The president actually asked for -- for $10 billion over ten years.

PHILLIPS: Well, here's what interesting --

COLICCHIO: And so we have a long way to go on this.

PHILLIPS: Well, and we talk about the funds and a long way to go and all this legislation but you actually did a healthy school lunch challenge on "Top Chef" and you actually discovered --

COLICCHIO: We did.

PHILLIPS: -- you actually discovered we can do this, right? And it doesn't have to be expensive?

COLICCHIO: Well, it's to include everybody. There's dollars involved here, but you send kids to school and you give them books and you give them a desk, this is -- this should be part of learning. For children to learn part of it is nourishing them.

We did do a challenge on "Top Chef" and what we found out, you know, for years you've always heard that kids don't want to eat healthy food. They want pizza and they want chicken fingers. And we found out that if you feed kids really good healthy, nutritious food they will eat it. In fact they were asking for seconds and thirds and fourths. So just based on (INAUDIBLE), it's not a scientific study but just based on the 200 children that we fed that day, they'll line up for really healthy food. PHILLIPS: curious, you know, you have Gramercy Tavern, River Park, Kraft, I've been to a couple of them. They're fantastic. And I'm just curious, what do you do with your leftovers, Tom?

COLICCIO: well, there's an organization City Harvest in New York City that actually comes to restaurants and they pick up all the sort of food that -- food that's safe, food that we're not going to use, so there's food rescue groups out there that do this.

There's so many groups like City Harvest, New York City Food Bank -- they're doing amazing work, but it's just -- the problem just keeps getting worse. It's not going away.

I think chefs in general, feel a strong connection to this. For the last 30 years, I've been doing a lot of charity work with various food organizations and I think as a chef -- it's not just me, there's so many chefs that are doing some great things -- Bill Telepan (ph) is working with school lunches here in New York city, Michelle Nishan (ph) who's been profiled on CNN, is putting together sort of community gardens where they're growing vegetables and creating market places and people who use food stamps are actually getting double on the dollars for that program.

So there's so many chefs. I think that deep down inside, we see people that go to a restaurant if people can afford it. But deep down inside - I think we understand that feeding people is an act of love and an act of kindness and it shouldn't be reserved just for people who can come into a white tablecloth restaurant -

PHILLIPS: Amen.

COLICCHIO: - and dine but food should be available for everybody and good, healthy food for everybody. I think when you come down to is what we're subsidizing. We're choosing in this country to subsidize foods, corn for corn syrup, soybeans for fat and things like that go into highly processed foods as opposed to subsidizing whole foods, fruits and vegetables from small family farms so they can compete. I think if the farm bill is coming up in 2012 and I think that's where we have to go. We need to start - I mean, it's amazing when you think that a hamburger in a fast food restaurant costs less money than a peach.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

COLICCHIO: I mean -

PHILLIPS: That puts it in perspective.

COLICCHIO: It's a stark look at it.

PHILLIPS: No, it is.

COLICCHIO: Because that peach, that peach is the cost of food. It's not subsidized where that hamburger in a fast food restaurant, everything that goes into that is subsidized. PHILLIPS: Well, Tom, you've been doing amazing things and cityharvest.org, I just went on-line, you plugged that. It looks like a fantastic charity that you can get involved with and donate and volunteer. You can donate food which is fantastic. Cityharvest.org. Too bad your Italian grandma can't make all the school lunches for our kids across the country. Then we'd all be in good shape.

Tom Colicchio, thanks so much for your time.

COLICCHIO: Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

COLICCHIO: I think the answer is this is a political solution. I think you need to call your congressman, call your senator and tell them that you're demanding better lunches in schools.

PHILLIPS: You got it. You've said -

COLICCHIO: That's how we have to fix this problem.

PHILLIPS: Well, you put out the word and so are we. Call your representatives and demand it. Tom, thanks.

And our focus on food continues all day and all week long. Coming up at 1:20 Eastern time, we're actually going to have a "top chef" panel. You're going to be able to check out all of them later in the CNN NEWSROOM.