Proclamation 5492—National Food Bank Week, 1986

In communities all across the United States, food banks have been established to help provide wholesome food for people in need.

These unique institutions are in the best tradition of American voluntarism. They have brought together public agencies, private industry, church groups, various associations, and individual Americans in a concerted drive to meet a basic human need. America's food banks provide immediate, temporary assistance at a neighborhood level to individuals and families who often do not know anywhere else to turn.

Private donors of food have greatly assisted in the maintenance and expansion of these worthwhile programs. Schools and neighborhood groups have contributed thousands of hours of manpower by helping collect and distribute the vast quantity of foodstuffs that food banks handle each year. The food banks themselves are staffed by dedicated citizens who seek nothing for themselves but the satisfaction of knowing that they have served as an invaluable resource to their fellowman. Without the humanitarian and charitable concern of all those involved in this mission, the sense of community and brotherly love that is indispensable to the quality of life in our cities and towns would be undermined.

In recognition of the many contributions of food banks and the selfless Americans who help organize and operate them, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 234, has designated the week beginning May 18 through May 24, 1986, as "National Food Bank Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning May 18 through May 24, 1986, as National Food Bank Week. I call upon all Americans to join in recognizing the accomplishments of these food banks.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 23rd day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth.

RONALD REAGAN