[ Released January 23, 1963. Dated January 22, 1963 ]
Dear Jim:
I am gratified at the efforts you and other distinguished citizens who serve as trustees of the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation have made to provide leadership for American citizens to participate in the worldwide Freedom from Hunger Campaign of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
United States participation in the International Freedom from Hunger Campaign will be highlighted by two related events in 1963. National Freedom from Hunger Week will be observed March 17-23 ,and the United States will be host to the World Food Congress in Washington, D.C., June 4-18. By Act of Congress in Public Law 87-841, the United States was authorized to invite the World Food Congress of the FAO to meet in this country, and the invitation was issued by the Secretary of Agriculture in November of last year.
In order to carry out its responsibilities as host nation to the World Food Congress, our Government will need the active support and participation of private citizens, business and voluntary groups and government agencies. The meeting is expected to be attended by delegates from over a hundred nations and marks the halfway point in the FAO's International Freedom from Hunger Campaign.
To coordinate government participation in this work and to furnish cooperation with the citizens' host committee, I am establishing an interdepartmental committee, under the chairmanship of Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman.
I look to the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation to provide active citizen leadership and, to that end, I ask that the trustees of the Foundation serve as a National Citizens' Host Committee for the World Food Congress.
Sincerely,
JOHN F. KENNEDY
[Mr. James G. Patton, President, American Freedom from Hunger Foundation, 700 Jackson Place, NW., Washington, D.C. ]
Note: The President on January 22 issued Proclamation 3514 "National Freedom from Hunger Week" (28 F.R. 677; 3 CFR, 1963 Supp.). On January 23 the White House announced that the President had completed plans for U.S. participation in the worldwide Freedom from Hunger Campaign and for carrying out the Government's responsibilities as host to the World Food Congress. Listed in the release were the names of the 4 members of the interdepartmental committee, with Secretary Freeman as chairman, and the 62 trustees of the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation, with President Harry S. Truman as honorary chairman.
John F. Kennedy, Letter to the President, American Freedom From Hunger Foundation. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237316