McGovern takes aim at hunger in world

OREM — George McGovern said he felt a little overwhelmed Wednesday morning as he eyeballed the breakfast buffet at Little America in Salt Lake City.

Pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage — the choices were plentiful and the portions even more so.

"I'd never seen such a bountiful spread as that cafeteria-style breakfast," said McGovern, the former senator from South Dakota and the Democratic candidate for president in 1972.

And sadly, McGovern said, at least a third of the children in the world will never see its equal.

"They may get enough to eat, but the kind of things we take for granted here are beyond the reach of most people around the world," he said.

About 300 million school-age children and 800 million people worldwide are affected by hunger, McGovern said, with the majority of those in Africa and Asia.

"But it's not necessary that it be that way," he said.

For the past 50 years, McGovern has devoted much time and energy to bring an end to world hunger, from his days as the first director of the Food for Peace Program in 1960 to his work today with former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas, in providing school lunches to hungry children around the world.

McGovern visited Utah Valley State College on Wednesday afternoon to speak to students, faculty and members of the community about ending world hunger.

It can be done, he said, and in the near future.

"I want these youngsters to know that hunger is a solvable issue," McGovern said prior to his lecture at UVSC. "I want them to know that we can solve this problem in their lifetime."

And the 83-year-old didn't rule out the possibility of the problem being solved in his lifetime.

"I want to live to be 100," McGovern said. "I'd like to see this done in the next 17 years so I can be around when it happens."

At the latest, he said, the world's hunger problem should be cured by 2030.

"If we don't do it in 25 years, whether I'm up above or down below, I'm going to raise hell," McGovern said.

The hunger problem in the United States is largely ended, he said, crediting that success to the food stamp program, the school lunch program he founded with Dole, and WIC, a supplementary food program for women, infants and children.