IV

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. RES. 649

Urging the President to continue efforts to support programs and activities

that provide food to the needy and school-age children in developing countries.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 24, 2000

Mr. HALL of Ohio (for himself, Mrs. EMERSON, Mr. MCGOVERN, and Ms.

KAPTUR) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the

Committee on International Relations

RESOLUTION

Urging the President to continue efforts to support programs

and activities that provide food to the needy and schoolage children in developing countries.

1 Resolved,

2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

3 This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Global School

4 Meals and Women and Children Nutrition Resolution of

5 2000’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:
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1 (1) There are an estimated 790,000,000 chron2 ically hungry people in the world, of which

3 300,000,000 are children.

4 (2) Each of the approximately 2,000,000,000

5 children in the world should have the right to sur6 vival, health, education, and protection from exploi7 tation and abuse of all kinds.

8 (3) All of society is responsible to ensure that

9 the right to education be realized for all children and

10 all adolescents.

11 (4) According to the United Nations Children’s

12 Fund (UNICEF), in sub-Saharan Africa as well as

13 all over the world, HIV/AIDS preys on the young,

14 poor, and powerless, and on girls and women in par15 ticular. While educated individuals have access to

16 the knowledge needed to protect themselves from

17 HIV/AIDS, the life-saving information is not finding

18 its way to those with little or no education.

19 (5) It is in the early years of childhood when

20 a child is most likely to be scarred and handicapped

21 for life by malnutrition.

22 (6) Numerous studies show the importance of

23 nutritious school meals and the correlation between

24 improved dietary status and enhanced school per25 formance.
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1 (7) Studies show that a higher percentage of

2 children attend school and remain through gradua3 tion when meals are provided.

4 (8) There is a vital need for the international

5 community to create mechanisms to ensure the pro6 tection and realization of children, so that children

7 everywhere may benefit from renewed efforts to en8 sure the fullest achievement of their rights to edu9 cation, nutrition, and a basic standard of living for

10 their protection when they are threatened by vio11 lence, abuse and exploitation.

12 SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

13 The House of Representatives—

14 (1) commends Ambassador George McGovern

15 and former Senator Robert Dole for their bipartisan

16 endorsement and leadership in promoting a world17 wide school meals program and for their remarks at

18 the May 2000 National Nutrition Summit at which

19 they jointly called on the United States Government

20 to lead the world in providing meals in school set21 tings for the more than 300,000,000 hungry chil22 dren in developing countries; and

23 (2) urges the President—

24 (A)(i) to continue efforts to support pro25 grams and activities that provide food to the
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1 needy and school-age children in developing

2 countries, including efforts under the Global

3 Food and Education Initiative announced by

4 the President in July 2000 at the G–8 summit

5 meeting in Okinawa, Japan; and

6 (ii) to ensure that the appropriate offices

7 within the Department of Agriculture and the

8 United States Agency for International Devel9 opment have an adequate number of personnel

10 in order to carry out, monitor, and evaluate the

11 Global Food and Education Initiative; and

12 (B) to continue to lead in organizing a

13 worldwide school meals program, as called for

14 by Ambassador George McGovern and former

15 Senator Robert Dole, and a supplementary

16 feeding program for pregnant and nursing

17 women and their children under the age of 5

18 similar to the special supplemental nutrition

19 program for women, infants, and children under

20 section 17 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966

21 (42 U.S.C. 1786), including transmitting to the

22 Congress a request for appropriate legislation

23 to authorize such programs and to provide suf-
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1 ficient funds for such programs for fiscal year

2 2002 and subsequent fiscal years.

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