[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 124 (Thursday, September 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1901]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  McGOVERN-DOLE INTERNATIONAL FOOD AND EDUCATION AND CHILD NUTRITION 
                                PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JO ANN EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 28, 2006

  Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, I want to join with the gentleman from 
Massachusetts, my good friend, in introducing this bill to reauthorize 
the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition 
Program. I first want to thank the gentleman for doing such a 
tremendous job in leading the charge on this particular program today 
and for spearheading efforts to increase discretionary funding for the 
Program year after year. This is a very important program for all of 
the children in the world who do not have access to nutritional meals.
  This legislation, quite frankly, is a win-win for the American 
people, and it is a win-win for children all over the world who 
desperately need food assistance and who need an education. We all 
know, so very well, that our country is currently engaged in daily 
battles with individuals who want to harm Americans. However, we are 
also engaged in the daily battle for the hearts and minds of the ``man 
on the street'' in under-developed countries. It is in this battle that 
the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition 
Program holds great potential.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a fact that we should know well: 120 million 
children worldwide are not enrolled in school. This fact is 
attributable in large part to hunger and lack of access to a nutritious 
meal. We share a common desire to try to help as many people as we can 
all over the world. The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education 
and Child Nutrition Program provides these needed meals using American 
commodities, but it can do more. The McGovern-Dole International Food 
for Education currently feeds millions while increasing school 
enrollment, particularly for girls. The legislation we introduce today 
would provide a more reliable source of funding, allowing USDA to 
reliably implement the program in countries for multiple years. Making 
multiple-year commitments is important. During a school feeding 
program's first year, average enrollment increases by 28 percent for 
girls and 22 percent for boys. In schools with feeding programs 
operating for more than one year, attendance for boys and girls 
increased to 93 percent.
  I cannot think of anything more important for us to do as a nation. 
Senator McGovern stated it best when he said we had a moral 
responsibility as a country with rich and valuable natural resources 
and an abundant, safe food supply to help people who cannot help 
themselves. Increased funding for the program, which is included in 
this bill, would not only allow our partner organizations to reach more 
students, but would also allow the McGovern-Dole International Food for 
Education and Child Nutrition Program to expand and to begin providing 
resources for organizations which provide assistance to mothers with 
children under the age of 5 years. America needs friends, not just in 
the capital cities around the world, but on the streets in the poorest 
areas of the countries. This is one program that lets the world's poor 
observe our values first hand.
  Mr. Speaker, it is also important to note that food aid provided 
through the McGovern-Dole program also spurs economic activity in the 
United States. The domestic beneficiaries of U.S. food aid exports 
include our agricultural producers and suppliers, our processors, our 
millers, edible oil refiners, packaging, manufacturing, rail and motor 
transportation lines; I could go on and on and on. Most every State in 
the Nation benefits from food aid exports.

  I would be particularly remiss if I did not acknowledge the vision of 
former Senators George McGovern and Senator Bob Dole who really led the 
charge early in this fight against hunger, many years ago when they 
were both serving in the Senate. This issue is also a very important 
issue for me, because my late husband Bill was so very instrumental in 
bringing the issue of hunger, both domestic and international, into the 
Congress where he worked so closely with his friend, the late 
Congressman Mickey Leland. I think that we must do everything possible 
to help the world's hungry children. When my late husband Bill came 
back from a trip to the Sudan, when he came back from various trips to 
Ethiopia and other countries, it was a very, very sad experience. He 
would hold dying children in his arms, children who were 12 years old 
and 13 years old, who were about the size of a 3-year-old or 4-year-
old, who did not weigh anything, who had no opportunity to go to 
school.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, the McGovern-Dole International Food for 
Education and Child Nutrition Program reflects the humanitarian values 
Americans share, it reflects the value Americans place on an 
education--regardless of sex or race, the program utilizes American 
resources, benefiting the American economy and it makes us safer. The 
McGovern-Dole Program deserves not only to be reauthorized but 
expanded.

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