Proclamation 3734—National School Lunch Week, 1966

For twenty years the national school lunch program has convincingly demonstrated the vital role of good nutrition in the total educational process of the Nation's children.

The program is an outstanding example of a Federal-State-local partnership to make effective use of our food abundance and to protect the health and well-being of all our children, regardless of their race or ability to pay.

This year, under this program, some 19 million children in over 71,000 public and nonprofit private schools will enjoy nutritious, appetizing lunches.

Increased Federal, State, and local efforts will help additional thousands of children from low income families to obtain lunches that will strengthen their vitality and their ability to obtain maximum benefits from the learning process.

In recognition of the value and achievements of the school lunch program, the Congress by a joint resolution of October 9, 1962 (76 Stat. 779), has designated the seven-day period beginning on the second Sunday of October in each year as National School Lunch Week, and has requested the President to issue annually a proclamation calling for the observance of that week:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, call upon the people of the United States to observe the week beginning October 9, 1966, as National School Lunch Week, with ceremonies and activities designed to increase public understanding and awareness of the significance of the national school lunch program to the child, to the home, to the farm, to industry, and to the Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this 29th day of July in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-first.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

DEAN RUSK

Secretary of State