Nutrition, Equity, Education and Resilience: Celebrating 20 Years of McGovern-Dole
Blake Selzer | International Policy Manager | Alliance to End Hunger
It is hard to overstate the importance of nutrition early in life. Food and nutrition security are key to ensuring healthy and prosperous futures for kids, families, and entire communities. Globally, the Alliance to End Hunger and many of our partners stress the critical nature of nutrition in the “first 1,000 days” — from conception to the age of two. This is monumentally important, as malnutrition is a contributing factor to nearly half of child deaths. As many of us have families gearing up for school, it is a good time to remember how crucial food and nutrition support also is for school-aged children, and the economic and equity impacts this can have on a global level above and beyond education.
The McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program has played a key role in reducing hunger and malnutrition, promoting child development, improving food and nutrition security, and building literacy and educational opportunity in the developing world— especially for girls. Enacted in 2002, the program is celebrating 20 years of success along with its private, national, and multinational partners. Since its beginning, McGovern-Dole has provided over 5.5 billion school meals and has helped more than 31 million children and families in 48 countries. It is well-documented that children who receive nutritional support have both better health and educational outcomes.
The McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program has played a key role in reducing hunger and malnutrition, promoting child development, improving food and nutrition security, and building literacy and educational opportunity — especially for girls.
The McGovern-Dole program is more than school feeding, however. Even before children are school-aged, the program aims to increase food security and nutrition for children under the age of 5. Critically, the program is also very intentional about building gender equity through strategies that encourage families to send girls to school. Additionally, it supports both U.S. commodities through feeding programs and local agriculture and economies through Local & Regional Procurement (LRP).
The program’s monumental success has attracted long-term bipartisan support. The namesake of former Democratic Senator George McGovern and former Republican Senator Bob Dole — two champions of global food security — the program has gained praise across the aisle. On June 7, the U.S. House of Representatives issued a resolution commemorating the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) two decades of success in combating childhood hunger and promoting literacy worldwide.
Hunger has been on the rise since at least 2014. With the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent war in Ukraine upending food prices and agricultural markets, and the existential crisis posed by climate change, the McGovern-Dole program is a key feature in the essential strategy of enabling sustainable and resilient communities around the world.
The McGovern-Dole program is a key feature in the essential strategy of enabling sustainable and resilient communities around the world.
As funding continues to be debated in Congress, the Alliance to End Hunger commends the continued support of McGovern-Dole in both the House and Senate, and urges the Senate to adopt the House of Representatives proposed funding level of $265 million for fiscal year 2023. The impacts on child nutrition, literacy, educational opportunity, gender equity, and economic development are too important to ignore.
