During World War II American soldiers witnessed the tragedy of children struggling to find food for survival. This experience had a lasting impact on many, including General Dwight Eisenhower. Ike, in a series of appeals for the United Nations in 1948, emphasized that eliminating child hunger was crucial to world peace. Eisenhower believed that children who spend their young lives struggling to find sustenance, searching through “garbage heaps” as he put it, would become “wedded to the philosophy of force.”
Today, Eisenhower’s message is still very much relevant in a world where over 300 million children suffer from hunger. The Congress can take action to help these children by expanding the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.
The McGovern-Dole program, named after former senators Bob Dole and George McGovern, provides school lunches to children in impoverished nations. For many kids the school lunches are the only meal they receive the entire day. The school lunches encourage parents to send their kids to school instead of keeping them home to work. Take-home rations are also a component of the initiative. Charities such as CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Food for the Poor and the United Nations World Food Programme carry out the school lunch programs.
Currently, McGovern-Dole reaches about 3 million children. But many school feeding proposals by the aforementioned charities are denied because there simply is not enough funding available. A House Bill (H.R. 1616) and a Senate version (S. 946) aim to increase the yearly funding for McGovern-Dole from 100 million to 300 million over the next 5 years.
The applications of a strongly funded McGovern-Dole program are numerous. More school lunches could be provided to children in Southern Sudan, a region recovering from decades of Civil War. In 2006, the World Food Programme conducted a pilot school feeding program in North Darfur. One can imagine school lunch programs being an important part of peacekeeping and reconstruction throughout Darfur. In Afghanistan, a country struggling to build a democracy and peace after years of conflict, school lunches are vital to reconstruction. The United States, with its allies, should ensure that every child in Afghanistan can obtain school lunches and take-home rations.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jeff Friedberg
What is this crap about feeding the world. I heard this same BS 60 years ago when I was a little kid in school donating my dimes and nickels. Know what? Not ONE %$#@!&* thing has changed. They all still hate our guts, and they always have. I know, because I was there, and the Daily Show types---you know who you are---were not. Let the world starve and go to hell or Allah---whoever. Am I making this too sweet?
2 - Dave Nalle
I have to agree with you here, Jeff. Congress has a lot of domestic priorities which they aren't following through on terribly well. They need to deal with them before they start spending money overseas.
Dave
3 - bliffle
Jeff is wrong: grassroots 'people to people' programs abroad have been very successful in recruiting grass-roots support for the USA. And we can't just let them go to hell because we are dependent on other nations, and getting more so. What has alienated people is the leader-to-leader programs that have resulted in heavy-handed crap like the Iraq invasion.
Dave is wrong because Bush has clearly shown that no legislation is to be considered unles the whitehouse has the initiative. And Bush isn't, apparently, interested in this program. If Bush doesn't like a law from congress he either vetos it or hobbles it with 'signing statements', thus exercising complete control over congress. He treats congress like employees, not a co-equal branch of federal government.
4 - moonraven
The majority of folks in other countries do not hate folks from the US--just the US government headed by the Cross-eyed Cretin.
Even in countries such as Venezuela, where the leaders are very anti-Bush, neither those leaders nor the people hate folks in the US. Chavez would not be providing discounted heating oil to low-income folks in the US if he hated the US people.
Let's not use "Anti-Americanism" as an excuse to be mean-spirited, cheap and crass when other folks are starving.
And yes, YOU should be doing something for the very poor in the US, as well.
5 - Clavos
"Chavez would not be providing discounted heating oil to low-income folks in the US if he hated the US people."
Why not?
He'd be stupid not to; it's a brilliant move on his part: makes the US gummint which does nothing for the poor look bad, and makes him look good to the US poor (although not to the rich). I think even if he hated them, he'd be smart enough to discount their oil; it's great PR he can afford.
It would still be as good a way to win over the American poor as it is now, and it's the poor who most want his largesse.
6 - Zedd
William,
Instead of spending more money, perhaps some of the programs that are in place can be re-evaluated and funds can be channeled to such programs.
Dave
I have to agree with you here, Jeff. Congress has a lot of domestic priorities which they aren't following through on terribly well. They need to deal with them before they start spending money overseas
We will always have domestic issues and they will always be pressing.
In a nation of such diversity, with such a large population, it is more that feasible that we would be able to focus on more than just one aspect of development. Our isolationist haze has been the most detrimental characteristic, preventing us from enjoying our top dog status to the fullest. We have reluctantly engaged with the rest of the world. That reluctance has rendered us the image of snob, bully, arrogant, ignorant, etc. We can do both, prosper within and without.
This is a great investment into our future status as world leader. We have ceased to engage the world as we did even during the cold war. At that time we saw it as a matter of national security to be seen and to know about others, even if it wasn't done in the best way that it could have been implemented. Our white hat status has muddied and we will have to earn the title of good will ambassadors and not just forcefully tell people that we have good intentions. As China takes a more overt stand internationally in developing nations, we will have to be more aggressive in our efforts to prove our good guy role.
7 - moonraven
Unfortunately, you are NOT good guys.
8 - SFC SKI
OK, moonraven, what has your country done that makes the US pale in comparison.
I am not saying the US in perfect or infallible, I'd just like to here about someplace that participates in world events in a more beneficial and effective way.
9 - Clavos
INCOMMMIIIING!!!
10 - SFC SKI
When I start misspelling the easy words, it's time to stop posting.
Seriously, snarky comments like #7 are par for the course here, but why should I bother reading them if the commentor can't back up what they advocate?
I've been all over the US, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, please tell me where this Utopia, that people like moonraven render judgment from, is, just so I can get without sight of it, even if I as an ugly American can never enter.
11 - moonraven
Apparently you are unaware that I am a US citizen who has not lived in the US for 15 years.
I much prefer just about anyplace in Latin America (especially Mexico and Venezuela), as well as France and Italy.
I am not a Utopian thinker, however, so my spots may not meet your standards....
12 - SFC SKI
I have spent the better part of 19 years outside the US, as well. I can see the attractions of an expat lifestyle, overall I'd say the pace of life is a little bit less rushed than life in the US is. You can't sit in a cafe (if you can find a real one) in the US for 2 hours drinking the same drink and kill time without some waiter bothering you.
I can't comment on South America as I have never spent time there. France and Italy, very nice indeed, I wish I could spend more time there.
So, what makes those places more preferrable to the US, and are there "good guys" there doing good things for the world as a whole?
It's one thing to criticize, but in criticizing, aren't you judging one thing against another thing, or against an accepted standard? If so, and we are not the "good guys", who might they be, and where might they reside, and what works have they acomplished that make them "good"?
13 - zingzing
have you guys noticed how the conservatives around here have had to stop saying "you hate america!" to every other liberal around here.
why is that?
because we have lovely moonraven, a real live america-hater. thank you, moonraven... you make this place safe for us to dislike the bad bits of america and be good americans at the same time.
you're like an anti-conservative. you know, how the circle meets itself up again? you see americans, and therefore they are wrong, because as a living american, they are guilty for everything that "america" (government, history, military) does. (is each and every american that powerful in your eyes?) a conservative sees a liberal, and therefore they are wrong, because as an american liberal, they are guilty of not being a conservative.
14 - moonraven
SFC:
I have every right to criticize the folks in the US--and with whatever criteria I choose to apply.
You folks are cheap, mean, boring, ignorant, anti-intellectual, genocidal, FAT and about a thousand more adjectives that for ME are negatives.
I don't have to provide good guys in order to tell you that you are NOT good guys.
Our species has been the worst ever on the planet.
But folks in the US are worse than folks just about anywhere else.
If you think you are the good guys, the onus is on YOU to provide evidence for that.
The evidence for the contrary view on this day in history is simply overwhelming.
15 - Clavos
Tried to warn ya, Sarge...
16 - SFC SKI
Yeah, I am stupid like that.
Actually, I just wanted to have someone like moonraven lay out his position so clearly, that way I'll know not to bother taking him seriously.
You do have every right to criticize, but since you haven't given me any reason to consider your opinion as either rational or informed, or any evidence that you have a better alternative at hand other than more mewling criticism, you really don't deserve any further attention. Good luck to you in future travels.
17 - zingzing
"You folks are cheap, mean, boring, ignorant, anti-intellectual, genocidal, FAT and about a thousand more adjectives that for ME are negatives."
wee-ooo!
lets see...
cheap? sometimes. that can be true. but sometimes not.
mean? sometimes, but it's not wrapped up in hypocrisy... like you...
boring? maybe. but most of us have more than one point to make, over and over and over and over. (we get it, you don't like americans.)
ignorant? on certain subjects, but at least i know that and am not ignorant of my own ignorance... like you...
anti-intellectual? i have no problems with intellectuals or intellectualism. i can go there myself on a few (very few) subjects.
genocidal? me? never. you? do you suddenly find yourself genocidal when you consider your american citizenship?
fat? ah-ha. not i. painfully skinny, i am. i can feel all of my ribs. gross.
so, i, as a guilty-by-birth american, do not fit your vision of the typical american. (of course, if you had said we are all liars, i wouldn't have a leg to stand on.)
so we are not all the same. we are a pretty diverse nation, after all. lots of different kinds of people, different kinds of ideas floating about in this land.
if you want to paint us all with the same brush, you go right ahead and do so, moonraven. you got fucked over by an american, didn't you? did you love him? aww... stop being so bitter about it.
18 - moonraven
I don't need your good luck. I get paid big bucks to travel all around the planet.
Nor do I have to "lay out my position" to you. I left the US because I prefer to live in a kinder, gentler culture.
And moreover, I am not a HE.
19 - moonraven
Actually, I have never been "fucked over" by anyone.
I just do not like you guys.
Skinny or fat, ugly is ugly.
20 - Paul2
SFC SKI-
In fact you are kind of stupid. Concerning US aid you (mis)-posted on another thread (today) concerning US foreign aid:
"I THINK you are wrong, the US government and Americans individually give large amounts of monetary and other aid outside the US."
It has been discussed and evidently presented here before that by all comparisons of foreign aid the USA gives less aid then any other country. That is a FACT.
That does make the US pale "look pale in comparison", as you put it.
21 - moonraven
A perfect example of why you guys do not pass muster is your insistence on calling yourself Americans, when there are millions of other people in this hemisphere who are Americans.
You just are not getting it.
22 - Maurice
Much as I would like to solve all the worlds problems I have to agree with Dave #2. We need to address a few issues here at home. Also even though we are the most powerful free nation in the world we have to be willing to let other nations and governments fail so they can mature and become like us. This is a sad lesson that I have learned in my personal life also.
23 - zingzing
"A perfect example of why you guys do not pass muster is your insistence on calling yourself Americans, when there are millions of other people in this hemisphere who are Americans."
ok, i'm a united stateser... an... doesn't make any sense. it's just a word, moonie. many words have multiple meanings. there is this thing called context which decides the particular meaning which is being implied. get it?
"Actually, I have never been "fucked over" by anyone.
I just do not like you guys.
Skinny or fat, ugly is ugly."
wait, are you saying you don't like men, or... people that live in the united states of america (not south or central america, or other parts of north america, other than those stated above)?
and how, basing it on physical attributes (fat or skinny), would you know i, or any other american you talk to on this site, is ugly? and isn't that rather subjective? based on your words around here, there is certainly an ugliness in your soul, but i wouldn't presume to say you are ugly. you may very well be, you certainly are bitter and nasty enough, but it certainly wouldn't be a statement i could verifiably back up.
"I left the US because I prefer to live in a kinder, gentler culture."
yeah, but you took it with you, didn't you? maybe you should try and be "kinder [and] gentler" yourself. you do realize that you're very abrasive, don't you?
24 - SFC SKI
Do the citizens of the countries of Central and South America call themselves Americans, or the equivalent in their native languages? The ones I have met usually call themselves citizens of whatever nation they are from. That might have something to do with Central and South America being composed of nations, as opposed to Canada and the United States being composed of states or provinces under their respective federal governments. Since the US was founded as "The United States of America" that might be why we call ourselves Americans. To my knowledge, that does not prevent anyone else in the hemisphere from calling themselves Americans, though it might cause some confusion at customs and immigration. Good thing we have passports, yours must come in handy when travelling? Is it a US passport?
25 - zingzing
ahh, damn. maybe the old bitty figured it out.