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WASHINGTON — Rachael Ray’s signature smile evaporated throughout a car ride towards Capitol on Tuesday. None of her trademark catchphrases — “Yum-o” or “fantabulous” — tumbled from her mouth.

Instead, she grimaced, leaned in and sounded off concerning the federal Kid Diet Act and what she considers for being the government’s stingy reimbursement rates for college lunches. “Ridiculous,” she mentioned.

“How could you go to any state inside the union and say you aren’t for an extra couple of cents to eradicate hunger, to generate our children more healthy, stronger, far better focused?” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense which you would even have to own a lengthy conversation about that, to me.”

As New York’s junior senator, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, tries to squeeze billions of further dollars for public college lunch programs into a pinched budget, she is relying over a effective and garrulous megaphone: Ms. Ray.

Or as the master on the 30-minute meal said repeatedly, “I am employing my large Sicilian mouth.”

For four hours, Ms. Gillibrand unleashed the celebrity chef, cookbook author and talk present host to lobby lawmakers on the reauthorization with the nutrition act, which determines how much income colleges are offered for meals and how much control regulators can exercise around food outside of cafeterias, like the sugary snacks sold in vending machines.

Ms. Gillibrand and Ms. Ray argue that the reimbursement rate should be bumped up by 70 cents a little one. That figure is unlikely to fly within the current budget, but they explained they would settle for a smaller increase. (The recent bill would boost reimbursements by 6 cents to $2.74, from $2.68.)

An additional objective is often a ban on trans fats in university cafeterias. The Agriculture Committee, on which Ms. Gillibrand, a Democrat, sits, has balked, but she plans to force the difficulty with an amendment on the Senate floor. The Senate is likely to vote about the legislation this summer.

Ms. Ray, 41, who grew up in Ms. Gillibrand’s former Congressional district in northeast New York State, has made school diet one thing of the private crusade. She has helped the New York City institution program produce a healthier menu, producing a chicken taco dish for cafeterias utilizing a complete wheat flatbread, roasted chicken and also a ratatouille-style stew. Her latest coup was persuading the city’s colleges to use complete wheat pasta in macaroni and cheese.

In meetings with senators, Ms. Ray pressed her situation in a very polite but firm manner, repeatedly expressing consternation through Congress’s inability to discover further money. “Six cents just isn’t adequate,” she told Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan. “What can I do to guide?”

At times, Ms. Ray’s star power seemed to own its desired affect. “I really get pleasure from your display,” stated Representative George Miller, Democrat of California.

Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, spent the first 5 minutes of his meeting with Ms. Ray discussing his preferred recipes and grocery stores (Complete Foods, followed by Trader Joe’s).

Lawmakers seemed to appreciate Ms. Ray’s conviction and activism. “She can achieve persons in the way we cannot on C-Span,” explained Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota. “When we start talking about waistlines and vending machines, having somebody who has the achieve that she has can be a bunch a lot more appealing than a hearing room without any windows. She includes a window onto the world.”

As she darted across the sprawling Capitol complex, Ms. Ray seemed to regret her decision to wear open-toed higher heels. “Better shoes,” she said to herself, as if making a checklist for her up coming lobbying session.

The nutrition bill has taken on a personalized dimension for Ms. Gillibrand as properly. A mother of two, she has spoken candidly about her own efforts to drop fat.

Considering that the birth of her son Henry, about two many years ago, Ms. Gillibrand has turned heads by easily shedding pounds.

She has very carefully stuck to a diet of fruits and vegetables, lean meat and fish. She says she writes down just about every thing she eats. Her menu on Tuesday was full wheat toast for breakfast and yogurt for lunch.

“Like all ladies who’ve kids,” she said in an interview, “I have been really attentive to excellent nourishment, and good eating habits, and exercising, so I could get rid of my baby bodyweight.”

Ms. Gillibrand’s outspoken help of higher financing has won her plaudits from kid hunger and anti-obesity activists, who explained she has spotlighted an difficulty that is probably for being overlooked in an era of falling revenues and spending budget cuts.

“For a new member, it shows a good deal of guts,” explained Joel Berg, the executive director on the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. “There is no campaign income in this” for Ms. Gillibrand.