Proclamation 5870—National School Lunch Week, 1988

Forty-two years ago, just after World War II, America began the National School Lunch Program—a partnership in which State and local governments were to administer Federal food assistance in schools around our country. Today, after more than 4 decades, this program has helped provide good nutrition for millions of American students. National School Lunch Week gives all of us a chance to recognize the vision and concern of everyone associated with this project through the years and to congratulate the many citizens who continue to make it a success.

We can all be proud of the skills, devotion, and hard work supplied to school lunch programs nationwide by parents, school and community officials, and nutrition staffs. These Americans do everything necessary to make sure that the students of their areas enjoy the sound and satisfying lunches that are so important to the school day. Let us all be sure to express our gratitude and appreciation for these efforts, and to offer our cooperation as well—during National School Lunch Week, 1988, and always.

By joint resolution approved October 9, 1962, the Congress designated the week beginning on the second Sunday of October in each year as "National School Lunch Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of that week.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning October 9, 1988, as National School Lunch Week, and I call upon all Americans to give special and deserved recognition to those people at the State and local level whose dedication and innovation contribute so much to the success of the school lunch program.

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

RONALD REAGAN