Glickman Outlines World Lunch-for-Kids Program

July 28, 2000

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Thursday outlined for the Senate Agriculture Committee an attempt the Clinton Administration is making to involve developed countries in a program designed to provide school food programs to needy nations. The United States would use surplus commodities for donation to developing countries with certain conditions attached to the food.

The program would be coordinated in the United States through the existing interagency Food Assistance Policy Council that is chaired by USDA and includes representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of State, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The authority of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act would be used to procure surplus commodities

Overseas donations of commodities in CCC inventory are authorized under Section 416(b) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, and that authority would be used to carry out assistance programs in developing and friendly countries. The commodities most suitable for this initiative are soybeans, corn, wheat, rice, and nonfat dry milk, and products containing these commodities, Glickman said.

The Policy Council would choose participating countries based on their need, but also on their contribution of resources, their commitment to expanding access to basic education, their commitment to assume responsibility for operating the program within a reasonable time frame, and their current infrastructure and ability to deliver food to schools. "We also will manage the program in a way that does not hinder sales opportunities for local farmers or distribute U.S. or Allied commercial exports," said Glickman.

For the first year of the program, the United States will invest $300 million in commodities and transportation costs. This would help feed up to 9 million school and pre-school children in selected developing countries, according to Glickman.

Working through the World Food Program and private voluntary organizations, the U.S. would provide food commodities for direct feeding programs in schools. Some of the commodities will be sold to fund other food, on-the-ground, and administrative costs. The proceeds from these sales would be used to manage the programs; fund associated efforts such as buying local foodstuffs that may be more appropriate for local tastes or for the school meals program, or buying equipment; and pay storage, processing, handling, and transportation costs.

Glickman said some members of the Group of Eight developed nations have indicated support for the program, and during his trip to Africa, "I will discuss the need for this type of program with government officials, the private sector, and the aid communities there."

Two former political opponents, both former senators, George McGovern and Bob Dole, supported the concept Glickman is proposing. "The most effective attraction anyone has yet devised to bring youngsters into the schools and keep them there is a good school lunch program," McGovern said. "Nutrition is the precondition of education."

He said a significant benefit of an international school lunch program is that it would raise the income of American farmers and those in other countries that have farm surpluses. If other developed countries considered the U.S. $300 million share as 25% of what is needed, the other three-fourths coming from the rest of the world, a total of $1.2 billion "would not be a bad start," McGovern said.

Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) said, "It is a remarkable idea in terms of our own humanitarian interests as well as our foreign policy. If the infrastructure is done right, if we are thoughtful about modeling the American school lunch program around the world, this is an extraordinary opportunity for American influence."