IT IS a great pleasure and honor to welcome to the White House again Mrs. Wood row Wilson and Miss Marian Anderson as representatives of the United States Freedom From Hunger Foundation.
It is fitting that on tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, the United States will launch its Freedom From Hunger Campaign in cooperation with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
As the Pilgrims gave thanks more than three centuries ago for a bountiful harvest, so we give thanks in 1961 for the blessing of our agriculture and the continued opportunity that the great productivity of our farms gives us in sharing our food with the world's hungry.
President Woodrow Wilson responded to that opportunity in 1914, when food was sent to Europe. The American people have answered this call before, in all parts of the world, and they answer it now. Since last January, under the Food for Peace Program directed by Mr. McGovern, nearly 28 million tons of food have been programmed for shipment abroad.
The challenge of world hunger is one that we must meet, knowing that the burden is greater today than it's ever been before. But it is heartening to know that we are now joined in a worldwide alliance, the Freedom From Hunger Campaign, to eliminate hunger from the earth.
As long as there are hungry families-mothers, fathers, and children--through the world, we cannot possibly believe or feel that our great agricultural production, in any sense, is a burden. It is a great asset, not only for ourselves but for people all over the world; and I think that instead of using the term "surpluses," and regarding it, in a sense, as a failure, we should regard it as one of the great evidences of our country's capacity, and also as a great resource, in order to demonstrate our concern for our fellow men.
As I've said, as long as any of them are hungry tomorrow, I'm sure that Americans will not sit down at their table without hoping that we can do more to aid those who sit at no table.
Note: The President spoke in the Fish Room at the White House. Also present, in addition to Mrs. Wilson and Miss Anderson, was Chancellor Adenauer.
The White House announced on the same day that 33 prominent Americans, including President Truman, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Roosevelt, and Adlai E. Stevenson, had been named members of the U.S. Freedom From Hunger Foundation. On December 14 the President announced that President Truman had accepted the honorary chairmanship of the Foundation, and released a statement by the former President.
John F. Kennedy, Remarks in Connection With the United Nations Freedom From Hunger Campaign. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235654
