Proclamation 4594—National School Lunch Week, 1978

Every child needs wholesome food. The National School Lunch Program was created in 1946 to help our nation achieve that goal. It now provides nutritious lunches to 26 million children every school day.

I am proud of the success of the National School Lunch Program and of the two other nutrition-related school activities that complement its success.

One is the School Breakfast Program that now serves 2.8 million children daily. It gives all children, not just the needy, the chance to eat breakfast at school if they cannot eat at home.

The other is the Nutrition Education and Training Program that will instruct children, teachers, and school food service workers on the relationship between food, nutrition, and health.

In recognition of the National School Lunch Program's contribution to America's youth, the Congress, by a joint resolution of October 9, 1962 (76 Stat. 779; 36 U.S.C. 168), has designated the week beginning the second Sunday of October of each year as National School Lunch Week, and has requested the President to issue annually a proclamation calling for its appropriate observance.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, do hereby urge the people of the United States to observe the week of October 8, 1978, as National School Lunch Week and to give special recognition to the role of good nutrition in building a stronger America through its youth.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third.

JIMMY CARTER