Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 99 Part 2.djvu/485

 PUBLIC LAW 99-198—DEC. 23, 1985

99 STAT. 1595!

ance to carry out the school lunch program operated in the district in the form of, in lieu of commodities, all cash assistance or all commodity letters of credit assistance. (c) If an eligible school district elects to receive assistance in the form of all cash assistance or all commodity letters of credit assistance under subsection (a), the Secretary shall provide bonus commodities to the district only in the form of commodities, to the same extent as bonus commodities are provided to other school districts participating in the school lunch program. GLEANING OF FIELDS

SEC. 1582. (a) Congress finds that— (1) food banks, soup kitchens, and other emergency food providers help needy persons seeking food assistance at no cost to the Government; (2) gleaning is a partnership between food producers and nonprofit organizations through which food producers permit members of such organizations to collect grain, vegetables, and fruit which have not been harvested and distribute such items to programs which provide food to needy individuals; (3) support of gleaning to supply food to the poor is part of the Judeo-Christian heritage as set out in the Book of Leviticus: "When you reap the harvests of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien."; (4) a 1977 General Accounting Office analysis estimated that during the 1974 harvest 60,000,000 tons of grain, vegetables, and fruit, valued at $5,000,000,000, were unharvested; (5) the diets of millions of people in the United States could have been supplemented with such lost grain, vegetables, and fruit; (6) a number of State and local governments have enacted "Good Samaritan" laws which limit the liability of food donors and provide an incentive for food contributions; and (7) numerous civil, religious, charitable, and other nonprofit organizations throughout the country have begun gleaning programs to harvest such food items and channel them to the needy in the United States. (b) It is the sense of Congress that— (1) food producers who permit gleaning of their fields and civic, religious, charitable, and other nonprofit organizations which glean fields and distribute the resulting harvest to help the needy should be commended for their efforts; and (2) State and local governments should be encouraged to enact tax and other incentives designed to increase the number of food producers who permit gleaning of their fields and the number of shippers who donate, or charge reduced rates for, trgmsportation of gleaned produce.

State and local governments.

State and local governments. Transportation.

ISSUANCE OF RULES

SEC. 1583. Not later than April 1, 1987, the Secretary shall issue rules to carry out the amendments made by this title.

7 USC 2011 note.

�