This article appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer

Friday, December 01, 2006

Congress Must Help Feed World's Children
By William Lambers

After World War II, the United States sponsored the Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild war-torn Europe. Food aid, medicine and reconstruction efforts vastly improved the lives of the children on that continent.

Today, the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program carries on the U.S. tradition of helping the world's children. This program, named for former Sens. George McGovern and Bob Dole, provides school lunches to children in impoverished countries. Millions of children have benefited from these lunches, but many millions more go without.

Like the Marshall Plan of the late 1940s, the McGovern-Dole program is in need of adequate funding to truly maximize its potential. In 2007 the new Congress will have an opportunity to strengthen and grow this program.

How McGovern-Dole works is quite simple. A daily lunch is provided to every child who attends school in a participating country. For many children this is the only meal they receive the entire day. The benefits of having this school lunch are therefore enormous.

A child who eats will be healthier and better able to concentrate on school. Parents in poverty-stricken countries will be more likely to send their children to school with the promise of food aid. In some cases, take-home rations will bolster this.

The benefits to America's image are also substantial. Take, for instance, school feeding programs in Afghanistan, a country in the front line of the war on terrorism. McGovern-Dole supports school lunch initiatives in Afghanistan, such as the one operated by the charity World Vision.

The McGovern-Dole program is an investment in the future of underprivileged countries. School lunches help fuel the education and future of children in these nations. But without increased and steady funding, millions of children will not be nourished.

Congress has a choice. It can vote to make certain that school feeding programs in Afghanistan and around the globe are strengthened and expanded. Or Congress can not make school feeding a priority and leave millions of children worldwide with one less ray of hope. For more information, please visit www.friendsofwfp.org.

William Lambers is a graduate of the College of Mount St. Joseph's Master of Organizational Leadership program. He also writes for the History News Service.