International School Feeding Initiatives. Hearing before the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. US Senate, 106th Congress, Second Session (July 27, 2000).

These hearing transcripts recount testimony before Congress on proposals to work with recipient governments and communities to establish a preschool and school feeding program in developing countries. Of particular focus in the hearing was the infrastructure needed to implement the program effectively and the roles of government agencies, nongovernmental agencies, voluntary agencies, the agricultural community, and the private commercial sector. Oral or written testimony was offered by Ambassador George McGovern; Senators Lugar, Cochran, Harkin, Leahy, Durbin, Daschle, Johnson, and Dole; and Representative James McGovern, as well as by the executive director of the World Food Program, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and directors/chairs of private voluntary relief organizations. It was asserted that international lunch programs have the potential benefit of helping to achieve several foreign policy goals: reducing hunger, increasing and enhancing education in developing countries, increasing education for girls, reducing child labor, increasing opportunities for orphans of war or disease, decreasing population, and decreasing pressure on food resources and on the environment. Testimony by representatives of private voluntary organizations pointed out: (1) the need to involve private voluntary organizations in implementing a school feeding program; (2) the importance of improving educational quality to enhance the school feeding impact; (3) the need for a multifaceted, multiyear approach; (4) the need for involving the private commercial sector; and (5) concerns about the real impact of a school feeding program on childrens nutrition. Appended are prepared statements submitted by congressmen and a concept paper by Food for Education and Economic Development. (KB)