U.S. ambassador urges global school lunch programMay 31, 2000 Web posted at: 5:52 PM EDT (2152 GMT) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Senator George McGovern on Tuesday urged the creation of an "universal school lunch program," which would guarantee 300 million children in the developing world access to one meal per day. McGovern, who is currently U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, said he discussed the idea with President Bill Clinton and top administration officials Friday. In a speech at the National Nutrition Summit, McGovern said a universal school lunch program, modeled after the U.S. school lunch program, was ambitious but "well within the reach of the international community." It would help the 300 million hungry and malnourished children in the developing world and provide farmers with a new market for their products, he said. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Clinton was intrigued by the McGoverns idea. "I would say it was a very enthusiastic meeting," Glickman told reporters. "We were instructed to go out and basically flesh out the idea." Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, now in private law practice, also embraced the suggestion, but he warned it could be "very costly." McGovern said he envisioned the program would begin as international effort that gradually would be taken over by the individual participating countries.

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