[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 198 (Thursday, October 14, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 55615-55616]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-26998]


 
 
                         Presidential Documents 
 
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 198 / Thursday, October 14, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

 ___________________________________________________________________

 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 55615]]

                Proclamation 7237 of October 8, 1999

                
National School Lunch Week, 1999

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                For more than 50 years, the National School Lunch 
                Program has been at the forefront of our Nation's 
                effort to promote the health and well-being of our 
                children. Created to ensure that all children in our 
                Nation receive the nourishment they need to develop 
                into healthy and productive adults, the program 
                provides nutritious lunches to more than 26 million 
                children each day in 95,000 schools and residential 
                child care institutions across the country. For many 
                children, this free or reduced-price meal is often the 
                most nutritious meal of their day.

                Equally important, the National School Lunch Program 
                provides our children with the fuel they need to remain 
                alert and attentive in the classroom. Common sense 
                tells us--and scientific research confirms--that a 
                hungry child cannot focus on learning and that a child 
                who does not eat properly is more likely to be sick and 
                absent from school. Day in and day out, school lunches 
                give our children the energy to learn today, while 
                helping them prepare for the challenges of the future.

                An array of nutrition programs now supplements the 
                National School Lunch Program. Whether providing 
                schoolchildren with a good breakfast or a healthy 
                afternoon snack, the School Breakfast Program, the 
                Summer School Food Service Program, the Special Milk 
                Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program help 
                ensure that our children eat nutritious and healthy 
                meals throughout the day. As we observe this special 
                week, let us reaffirm the belief of President Harry 
                Truman, founder of the school lunch program, that 
                ``Nothing is more important in our national life than 
                the welfare of our children, and proper nourishment 
                comes first in attaining this welfare.''

                In recognition of the contributions of the National 
                School Lunch Program to the health, education, and 
                well-being of our Nation's children, the Congress, by 
                joint resolution of October 9, 1962 (Public Law 87-
                780), has designated the week beginning on the second 
                Sunday in October of each year as ``National School 
                Lunch Week'' and has requested the President to issue a 
                proclamation in observance of this week.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 10 
                through October 16, 1999, as National School Lunch 
                Week. I call upon all Americans to recognize all those 
                individuals whose efforts contribute so much to the 
                success of our national child nutrition programs, 
                whether at the Federal, State, or local level.

[[Page 55616]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-nine, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
                fourth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 99-26998
Filed 10-13-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P