World school lunch program could cost $3 billion a year

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Former senators and presidential candidates George McGovern and Bob Dole on Thursday outlined their vision for an international school lunch program that could cost as much as $3 billion annually, with the United States contributing 25 percent of the cost.

"If we could achieve the goal of reaching 300 million hungry children with one good meal every day, that would transform life on this planet," McGovern told the Senate Agriculture Committee.

McGovern and Dole, who worked together on hunger issues in the Senate in the 1970s, have proposed the creation of an international school lunch program to be run through the United Nations World Food Program.

Both are unsuccessful presidential candidates. McGovern, a South Dakota Democrat, lost against President Richard Nixon in 1972. Dole, a Kansas Republican, lost against President Bill Clinton in 1996.

At the G-8 summit of leading industrial nations last week in Okinawa, Japan, Clinton said the United States would provide $300 million in commodities and transportation costs for a pilot international school lunch program. The program, which is pegged to feed about 9 million children, was tentatively expected to begin as soon as September, but no recipient countries were named for the launch.

Soybeans, corn, wheat, rice and nonfat dry milk and products containing these products were mentioned as commodities to be included in the food aid donations.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman told the panel that in order to sustain a long-term international school lunch program, Congress must provide the USDA with the necessary funding and infrastructure. The U.S. contribution to the $3 billion proposed program was estimated at $750 million a year.

Glickman said the program would benefit, not hinder U.S. farmers facing a fourth year of low crop prices.

The USDA would "manage the program in a way that does not hinder sales opportunities for local farmers or distribute U.S. or allied commercial exports," he said.

Glickman added he thought other countries would step forward to participate and foot the bill.

"Some of the countries that make up the Group of Eight indicated their support," Glickman said, adding he would discuss the initiative when he travels to Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa next week.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, called the proposal a "remarkable idea" that could increase U.S. influence around the world.

At the same time, it was a highly ambitious idea that would require a lot of work, he said.

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