[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 74 (Monday, May 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H2976]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         McGOVERN-DOLE INTERNATIONAL FOOD FOR EDUCATION PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the George 
McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child 
Nutrition Program, one of America's signature child nutrition and food 
security programs.
  Established by Congress in the 2002 farm bill, over the past 15 
years, it has provided life-saving meals in school settings to over 14 
million of the world's most vulnerable children.
  Administered by the Department of Agriculture, this bipartisan-
supported program provides U.S. and international organizations with 
U.S. commodities, grants, and technical assistance to strengthen child 
nutrition and education.
  It receives a modest $201 million each year. Regrettably, the 
President's FY 2018 budget would cruelly eliminate the entire program.
  McGovern-Dole is named after two Senators who worked in a bipartisan 
way during their long tenures in the Senate to end hunger, especially 
among children in the United States and around the world. They 
continued their work together after leaving the Senate. They are models 
for what can be accomplished when Members of Congress actually put 
petty partisanship aside and make the welfare of children and families 
become your number one priority. And even though George McGovern is no 
longer with us, Bob Dole continues to champion this cause.
  On March 20, in a statement to The Washington Post, he said: 
``Eliminating the McGovern-Dole program would have a disastrous effect 
on the planet's most vulnerable children. Without a reliable source of 
nutrition, these children face a lifetime of stunted physical and 
mental development and unrealized opportunity. This global school meals 
program remains one of the proudest achievements of my lifetime. It 
embodies the very best of America's values. Saving this program means 
saving lives. It's as simple as that.''
  Madam Speaker, working through partners like the U.N. World Food 
Programme, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Save the Children, 
Counterpart International, and many more, McGovern-Dole has reduced the 
incidence of hunger among school-aged children. It has increased school 
enrollments and attendance. It has increased the support of families 
and communities for education, especially for girls. It is a proven 
success.
  Instead of eliminating it, we should be strengthening and expanding 
it. Now, I have had the privilege of visiting some of these programs 
around the world. In Colombia, I visited a program in Soacha, on the 
outskirts of Bogota. On barren hillsides, surrounded by shanties 
housing thousands of internally displaced families, children were 
receiving a school breakfast and lunch. Mothers and grandmothers were 
training as cooks preparing the meals. Clearly visible in the cafeteria 
were USAID bags of grains, beans, and lentils.
  One mother came up to me and said: ``Please thank the American people 
when you go back home. I couldn't feed my children. I couldn't send 
them to school. I was afraid my son was going to join the 
paramilitaries or guerrillas just to get food. Now my son is getting 
fed and he is staying in school. Please tell the American people thank 
you.''
  In Nairobi, Kenya, in the largest slum in the world, I went to a 
McGovern-Dole breakfast and lunch program. The school principal showed 
me how they store and prepare U.S. commodities that feed her students 
and how all the students know that this program is from the 
American people. I ate porridge made from yellow peas grown by American 
farmers. The kids dug into this food like it was manna from Heaven. One 
little boy would take a bite and then scoop a small amount out of his 
bowl and put it in his pockets. He was taking food home to his younger 
siblings who don't get anything to eat.

  Outside of Nairobi in Maasai country is a school for girls where 
McGovern-Dole provides a hot lunch. I helped cook and serve the meal of 
U.S. bulgur wheat and locally grown vegetables. One student told me how 
grateful she was to be able to go to school every day and eat every 
day. She grew up in a village over 100 miles away.
  When she was 12, her father told her that she had to marry a much 
older man. She refused. Her father ordered her to go to her uncle's 
house and get his machete and bring it back to him. She knew that he 
was going to kill her.
  She ran away, walking alone for days, because she had heard of this 
school. And when I met her, she was 15, healthy, and well fed, and at 
the top of her class. I knew I was talking to someone who will some day 
be a leader in her country. In the very best way, she will never forget 
us.
  And when we take food away from children, families, and schools, 
those communities will never forget us either. They won't forget that 
we took away their children's future. I wouldn't forget it if it were 
my child. Would you?
  Madam Speaker, there are many ways to advance U.S. national security 
and economic interests abroad. Education and child nutrition are very 
much at the top of the list. So I urge my colleagues to visit McGovern-
Dole programs when they travel abroad and to support continued funding 
of the program in FY 2018. It is yet another way that we can all work 
together to end hunger now.

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