Tom Harkin: “together with a bipartisan group of colleagues, I am pleased to be introducing this legislation to address two of the…”

“together with a bipartisan group of colleagues, I am pleased to be introducing this legislation to address two of the most glaring problems facing children across the globe: malnutrition and the lack of educational opportunity. I very much appreciate the opportunity to work with Senator Leahy and Senator Lugar, who have so strongly supported nutrition assistance for many years, in developing this legislation. An estimated 300 million poor children around the world either do not receive food at school or do not go to school at all. About 130 million of the world's children, 60 percent of them girls, are presently not attending school. With the abundance of food here in America and in other nations, this reality is absolutely unconscionable. Our bill, the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Act of 2001, will provide U.S. agricultural commodities and other assistance to boost child nutrition in connection with educational programs in developing countries. I salute former Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole for their work in promoting the Global Food for Education Initiative, and President Clinton for recognizing its merits early on and beginning a pilot project for this year. The bill permanently adds this new program to existing U.S. foreign food assistance programs, such as P.L. 480 and Food for Progress.”