National School Lunch Week, 2022

Proclamation 10470 of October 7, 2022

National School Lunch Week, 2022

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

During National School Lunch Week, we recommit to
supporting the National School Lunch Program that
provides tens of millions of children a year access to
nutrition, dignity, and a fairer shot at brighter
futures, and we celebrate its role supporting American
farmers and food producers, building a stronger America
for future generations.

School meals remain a vital lifeline, supplying well-
balanced, free or low-cost meals to kids across the
country since the program began in 1946. Studies show
these are often the most nutritious--and sometimes the
only--meals in a student's day. They improve student
health, making it easier for students to learn, and
erode inequity while also advancing our fight against
childhood obesity.

My Administration is committed to ending hunger in the
United States by 2030, making healthy school meals
available to even more kids, and supporting schools
that pioneer new ways to improve nutritional quality,
whether for breakfast, lunch, or summer and afterschool
meals. To that end, this September, I convened the
first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and
Health in over 50 years, bringing together anti-hunger,
nutrition, and public health advocates; food companies;
health care providers; local, State, and Tribal
governments; and Federal agencies. We released a
national strategy to end hunger and reduce diet-related
diseases while easing disparities across underserved
communities--starting by expanding free school meals to
9 million more kids by 2032. Providing healthy food is
central to children's ability to learn and thrive, and
no child's future should be determined by the zip code
they were born in or by the food their families can
afford.

This strategy builds on my Administration's work to
provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to
those in need through our American Rescue Plan. It
builds on our $60 million investment in Farm-to-School
initiatives that benefit American farmers, connecting
them to local schools which become reliable markets. We
also made historic strides in slashing child poverty to
its lowest rate on record by expanding the Child Tax
Credit and through other actions.

Parents across our country want the same things for
their kids: healthy food, clean water, good schools,
and opportunities to dream big and access all the
possibilities America offers. This week and always, my
Administration pledges to do everything in its power to
end child hunger and to put the promise of America in
every child's reach. We thank the farmers, farm
workers, and ranchers, as well as the educators and
school nutrition professionals, who have gone above and
beyond to keep our kids fed during the COVID-19
pandemic and who work so hard every day to make them
strong for the future.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 9
through October 15, 2022, as National School Lunch
Week. I call upon all Americans to recognize and
commemorate all those who operate the National School

Lunch Program with activities that raise awareness of
the steadfast efforts in supporting the health and
well-being of our Nation's children.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
seventh.