[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 162 (Thursday, October 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S15365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH WEEK

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, in honor of National School Lunch 
Week I want to talk about one of the great public policy success 
stories of this century--the National School Lunch Program. Passed by 
Congress and established by President Truman in 1946, this program by 
law has the mission ``to safeguard the health and well-being of the 
Nation's children.'' By fighting hunger and promoting good nutrition 
among children, we can help them grow and mature into healthy, 
productive adults.
  The program has been a resounding success in meeting this mission. 
Any parent or teacher can tell you that a hungry child cannot learn. 
More and more scientific evidence has made it clear that hunger and 
malnutrition can undermine a child's progress in school. Hunger remains 
a serious problem in this country, and school meals are an important 
part of the effort to fight it.
  Today, the National School Lunch Program serves over 25 million 
students in 92,000 schools across the country. More than 90 percent of 
all public schools participate in the program. For almost 50 years, it 
has provided complete and nourishing meals to children, nearly half of 
them from low-income families. The school lunch program has reduced 
malnutrition and improved the health and well-being of children.
  Since 1946, we have learned a great deal about the relationship 
between diet and health. We have learned that it is not enough to 
provide children with calories. They need the right kinds of food to 
keep them healthy. Too much fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium 
can increase the risk of heart disease and some forms of cancer. Low-
income and minority groups are at greatest risk for those problems. 
Those risks begin in childhood. Good eating habits established in 
childhood are critical to staying healthy throughout one's life. I am 
very proud of the bipartisan legislation we passed last year to improve 
the nutritional content of school meals.
  Mr. President, let me sum up by reiterating how important these 
programs have been, and how important they are today. Just as they were 
50 years ago, school meals remain a critical part of this country's 
effort to promote our most precious resource--the health and well-being 
of our children. We have worked hard to build a program that is ready 
to meet its statutory health mission well into the 21st century. As we 
consider proposals to block-grant or cut these programs, let us not 
forget how successful they have been in the past and how important it 
is to maintain them at the Federal level to fulfill our national 
responsibility to fight hunger and promote good nutrition.

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