I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1700
To establish an international food for education and infant and child nutrition
program to be carried out under section 416(b) of the Agricultural
Act of 1949.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 3, 2001
Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mrs. EMERSON, Mr. HALL of Ohio, Mr. JOHN-
SON of Illinois, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. LEACH, Mrs. CLAYTON, Mr. MAN-
ZULLO, Mr. NETHERCUTT, Mr. THUNE, Mr. BOSWELL, Mr. GREEN of
Wisconsin, Mr. BARRETT, and Ms. BALDWIN) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition
to the Committee on International Relations, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To establish an international food for education and infant
and child nutrition program to be carried out under
section 416(b) of the Agricultural Act of 1949.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘George McGovern-Rob-
ert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nu-
trition Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) According to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, ‘‘The State
of Food and Agriculture 1998’’, approximately
828,000,000 people are chronically undernourished
in the world today. While no region is immune to
hunger, the vast majority of these people live in 87
low-income, food-deficit countries.
(2) Many of the world’s hungry are children,
approximately 300,000,000. The United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, ‘‘State of the
World’s Children 2001’’, states that 32 percent of
the world’s children under five years of age—ap-
proximately 193,000,000—have stunted growth,
which is the key indicator for under-nutrition. Hun-
ger in the early stages of development is particularly
debilitating. As reported by UNICEF, optimal neu-
ral development in a child, which affects physical,
mental, and cognitive development, depends on good
nutrition and stimulation during the first months
and years of life.
(3) The causes of hunger are complex, but are
most often associated with poverty and lack of em-
powerment. In developing countries, where poverty is
endemic, governments face low revenues and high
debt burdens, funding is inadequate for basic health
and education, agricultural productivity and mar-
keting systems are weak and under-performing, em-
ployment opportunities are lacking, public institu-
tions are often weak, in some countries, HIV/AIDS
is pandemic, and many people struggle just to meet
their basic needs.
(4) Poor children rarely receive adequate edu-
cation. 
UNICEF 
reports 
that 
more 
than
130,000,000 primary-school-age children in devel-
oping countries do not go to school, and 60 percent
of these children are girls. In 2000, the United Na-
tions Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza-
tion (UNESCO) reported that for developing coun-
tries, an estimated 250,000,000 children from ages
five to fourteen are laborers, and fifty percent work
full time. Lack of education and the resulting poor
literacy limit the growth potential of children. Edu-
cation develops cognitive skills, improves long-term
productivity and offers a child protection from the
hazards of labor or exploitation. Long-term studies
indicate that increased literacy rates are critical to
economic development. In countries that achieve an
80 percent or better literacy rate among girls and
women, the birthrate decreases.
(5)(A) Food aid has been shown to have lasting
benefits for children in developing countries when
part of multi-faceted programs aimed at pregnant
women, nursing mothers, infants and children five
years and younger.
(B) Mother-child health (MCH) programs re-
duce the incidence of malnutrition and under-nutri-
tion and promote proper growth by providing supple-
mental food to pregnant women and nursing moth-
ers, along with nutritious take-home foods and
health care to mothers and children under the age
of two.
(C) Early childhood development programs pro-
vide children between the ages of three and six with
meals and training in basic skills, while mothers
learn about basic sanitation, first aid and res-
piratory and diarrheal diseases, the greatest killers
of young children in poor countries.
(D) Food for Education programs reduce the
incidence of hunger and enhance educational attend-
ance and performance by providing school meals or
take-home rations, along with improvements in edu-
cational quality and the school environment.
(E) Although the conditions and challenges in
developing countries differ greatly from those in the
United States, these international food aid programs
are similar in concept to the women, infants and
children (WIC) program, the Head Start program,
and the school breakfast and school lunch programs
in the United States.
(6) Over the past 50 years, United States inter-
national food assistance has contributed to alle-
viating hunger and its causes and is an integral part
of United States foreign policy. From the Marshall
Plan to the establishment in 1954 of the Food for
Peace program (or Public Law 480) and the Food
for Progress Act of 1985, American farmers have
played a key role in ensuring that the United States
is able to respond to emergencies such as famine,
natural disasters, and war, and to contribute to
global development initiatives. These programs con-
tinue because food is greatly needed in poor coun-
tries that cannot produce or afford to import ade-
quate amounts of food to meet their minimal needs.
(7) 7,900,000 metric tons of agricultural com-
modities, worth $1,500,000,000 in commodity pur-
chases, were approved during fiscal year 2000 to
provide food aid to 91 countries, as authorized under
section 416(b) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, the
Food for Progress Program, and Public Law 480.
Programs were implemented in the field by non-
governmental and private voluntary organizations,
cooperatives, the United Nations World Food Pro-
gram, and governments.
(8) American farmers benefit directly from food
aid programs by selling commodities for inter-
national development and hunger programs. In the
longer term, the economic uplift from food aid pro-
grams improves the living standards and purchasing
power of citizens in developing countries, expanding
markets for American agricultural products, goods,
and services.
(9) Two of the most successful and beneficial
bipartisan programs ever launched on behalf of chil-
dren in the United States have been the United
States school lunch and school breakfast programs,
and the women, infants, and children (WIC) pro-
gram. While hunger among children has not yet
been eradicated in the United States, over the past
22 years, America has provided a nutritious meal to
most students who cannot afford one. Currently,
about 27,000,000 children are fed every day through
these programs.
(10) On May 30, 2000, during the opening
ceremonies of the National Nutrition Summit, Sen-
ators George McGovern and Robert Dole praised the
Federal Government for reducing hunger in America
since 1969. They called upon the United States Gov-
ernment to reduce hunger in the developing world
through child nutrition programs similar to the
United States school lunch, school breakfast, and
WIC programs.
(11) On July 23, 2000, the G–8 Summit in
Okinawa, Japan, endorsed a proposal put forward
by the United States, the Global Food for Education
Initiative, to pursue a pilot preschool and school
feeding program.
(12) On December 28, 2000, in addition to
other international food aid program commitments,
the United States launched a $300,000,000 pilot
program, the Global Food for Education Initiative,
through the United States Department of Agri-
culture, to provide meals, take-home rations, and
other assistance to an estimated 9,000,000 needy
pre-school and school-age children in 38 countries.
Using authority under the Commodity Credit Cor-
poration Charter Act and section 416(b) of the Agri-
cultural Act of 1949, food commodities will be pur-
chased from American farmers by the United States
Department of Agriculture, which will be distributed
in fiscal year 2001 through 49 projects developed by
United States-based private voluntary organizations
and cooperatives, and by the United Nations World
Food Program. Senators McGovern and Dole urged
the United States Congress to make this a perma-
nently funded program and to engage the inter-
national community in a multilateral effort to end
child hunger over the next three decades.
SEC. 3. AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.
The Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter in this Act
referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall, using the authority
of section 416(b) of the Agricultural Act of 1949 (herein-
after in this Act referred to as ‘‘section 416(b)’’) and in
accordance with this Act, provide eligible commodities and
financial and technical assistance to establish, continue,
and expand—
(1) preschool and school feeding programs to
improve food security, reduce the incidence of hun-
ger, and improve educational opportunity; and
(2) maternal, infant, and child nutrition pro-
grams for pregnant women, nursing mothers, in-
fants, and children 5 years of age and younger.
SEC. 4. ELIGIBLE COMMODITIES AND COST ITEMS.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law—