[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 41 (Monday, October 18, 1999)]
[Pages 2050-2051]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Videotape Remarks to the National Summit on Community Food Security

October 14, 1999

    Good afternoon, and thank you for taking the time to participate in 
this first-ever summit on community food security. Thank you, Secretary 
Glickman, for your leadership in this vital area.
    Sometimes it's hard to comprehend that in the middle of the 
strongest peacetime economy in our Nation's history, when poverty is at 
a 20-year low and incomes are rising all across America, there are still 
people in our country who go to bed hungry. More than 3 million children 
suffer from hunger at some point during the year. And nearly 1 in 10 
American households are at serious

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risk that an expensive car repair or an unexpected rent increase could 
make them go hungry. That kind of deprivation is simply unacceptable in 
our land of plenty.
    From the earned-income tax credit to Medicaid to child care, our 
administration has carried out a new approach to help lift people out of 
poverty by forging a new social contract that rewards work, promotes 
responsibility, and helps families who need it.
    Last July, I took executive action to help families gain access to 
food stamps. Secretary Glickman is leading our efforts to launch a 
nationwide food stamp public education campaign, and all of you gathered 
here today are critically important to that effort. I ask each and every 
one of you to join with us in our partnership to ensure families get the 
help they need.
    Our work is far from done. While the Federal Government continues to 
be deeply involved in the fight against hunger, our nutritional safety 
net alone can't conquer the problem.
    The solution lies in new and innovative partnerships with grassroots 
efforts. For too long, Government programs haven't done enough to 
capitalize on community expertise. And likewise, community efforts have 
often not taken full advantage of the Government resources available to 
them. This conference is about building stronger partnerships, about 
bringing all the parties to the table and forming stronger ties among 
the Federal Government, State, local, and tribal governments, the 
private sector, nonprofit groups, the faith community, and private 
citizens. The more we work together, the better we can do in meeting the 
challenge of hunger.
    Thank you again for your participation and for the hard work you do 
and the dedication you show every single day in the fight against 
hunger.

Note: The President's remarks were videotaped at approximately 2:50 p.m. 
on October 12 in Room 459 in the Old Executive Office Building for later 
transmission to the National Summit on Community Food Security, meeting 
in Chicago, IL, on October 14. A tape was not available for verification 
of the content of these remarks.