[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 40 (Monday, October 11, 1999)]
[Page 1986]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7237--National School Lunch Week, 1999

October 8, 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.
    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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., October 13, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
October 14.