KANSAS CITY — Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack today said an additional 51,700 tons of agricultural commodities, valued at nearly $80 million, will be made available to children in low-income, food deficit countries under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. The $80 million comes on top of $95.5 million already earmarked for the program in fiscal 2009.

"No child in the world should go to bed hungry and this additional funding will help remedy the very sad reality that across the globe, every night many do," Mr. Vilsack said. "As a result of this effort, 655,000 poor children will eat a nutritious meal during their school day. By combining nutrition assistance with education, this investment will create opportunity for some of the poorest children in the world."

The funds are to be allocated to Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Uganda.

To date, the McGovern-Dole program has provided meals to more than 22 million children in 41 countries while raising school attendance by approximately 14%.