PROCLAMATION 7019—SEPT. 12, 1997 111 STAT. 2971 we must encourage lifelong learning for all our citizens, from expanding Head Start programs to helping adults improve their education and skills. These goals are ambitious, but they are crucial if we are to prepare for the challenges and possibilities of life in the 21st century. With the 1997 balanced budget agreement, we will begin to meet these goals by providing new resources to help children learn to read, the means to help connect every school to the Internet, and tens of billions of dollars in tax cuts to help families pay for college. I urge all Americans to become actively involved in their local schools and colleges and to make a real commitment to support education improvement and give our children the kind of support they need to succeed. The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education is setting a powerful example in this endeavor. These partners—including the Department of Education and more than 3,000 schools, families, colleges and universities, community, cultural, and religious groups, businesses, elected officials and policymakers, and the men and women of our Armed Forces—have pledged their support for our initiative, "America Goes Back to School: Answering the President's Call to Action." Through their dedication to our children, they are helping America's young people grow into responsible and productive citizens. They are proving that when communities unite, every student can achieve. NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 8 through September 14, 1997, as a time when America Goes Back to School. I encourage parents, schools, community and State leaders, businesses, civic and religious organizations, and the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities expressing support for high academic standards and meaningful involvement in schools and colleges and the students and families they serve. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety- seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-second. WILLIAM J. CLINTON Proclamation 7019 of September 12, 1997 National Week of Food Recovery, 1997 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation The American people are blessed with rich natural resources and an agricultural sector that is the most efficient and productive in the world. It is a tragic reality, however, that in this land of plenty, many of our fellow Americans still go hungry each day. This statistic becomes even more heartbreaking when we realize that about 27 percent of the estimated 356 billion pounds of food that America produces each year goes to waste at the retail, wholesale, and consumer levels.
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