Proclamation 6738

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Sound nutrition plays a vital role in ensuring that children reach their full potential physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Our commitment to the National School Lunch Program reflects the importance of nutrition in our daily lives.

As we celebrate National School Lunch Week this year, we reaffirm our concern for the health of our Nation by continuing to press forward in our comprehensive initiative requiring that school meals meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Through this initiative, we will update the standards for school meals to reflect the most recent scientific consensus calling for low fat, high fiber foods to help reduce the likelihood of such life-threatening illnesses as cancer and heart disease. We also will help to instill eating habits that promote lifelong health and well-being, and we will rededicate ourselves to delivering school meals that meet the highest possible standards for nutritional quality and appeal.

The National School Lunch Program currently operates in more than 95 percent of the Nation's public schools and serves about 25 million lunches daily. Many children receive their only nutritious meal of the day at school. These school means can increase a student's attention span and learning capability. They can improve overall health. And they can help to teach good dietary habits that will last a lifetime. These accomplishments are made possible by the joint efforts of principals, teachers, parents, Federal, State, and local officials, and especially the food service professionals working in more than 92,000 schools and residential child care institutions across the country. We commend all of these individuals for their concern and their dedication in making wholesome meals a reality for our Nation's children.

In recognition of the contributions of the National School Lunch Program to the nutritional well-being of children, the Congress, by joint resolution of October 9, 1962 (Public Law No. 87-780), has designated the week beginning the second Sunday in October of each year as "National School Lunch Week" and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of that week.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning October 9, 1994, as National School Lunch Week. I call upon all Americans to recognize those individuals whose efforts contribute to the success of this valuable program.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and nineteenth.

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:51 a.m., October 12, 1994]