WICHITA STUDENTS HELP WITH FOOD RECOVERY EFFORTS



                                           Releases No. 0118.97
                                                               
                                   Tom Amontree  (202) 720-4623
                                   Laura Trivers (202) 720-4623


WICHITA STUDENTS HELP WITH FOOD RECOVERY EFFORTS


     WICHITA, KS, April 18, 1997--Wichita area high school students joined
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today to kick off a new partnership
between the Kansas Foodbank Warehouse and the Wichita Board of Education
that will provide the foodbank with student volunteers and give the students
an opportunity to serve their community.

     "This partnership will help students fulfill their graduation
requirements while providing the food bank with enthusiastic young
volunteers," said Glickman at the Kansas Foodbank Warehouse, which provides
food to more than 290 agencies in more than 85 Kansas counties, feeding an
average of 75,000 people each month.    

     "It is astounding that nearly 20 percent of America's food goes to
waste each year, with an estimated 130 pounds of food per person ending up
in landfills. That's enough to feed 49 million people," Glickman said.
"Working together, we can recover this food and get it to hungry families in
the community who need it a lot more than the dumpster does."

     Students from East High School and the Down Town Law Magnet High
School joined Glickman at the announcement, which occurred as part of
National Volunteer and Service Week.  Both schools require students to
perform 100 hours of community service to graduate. In addition, the Wichita
School District announced that they will aggressively promote food recovery
activities to their students and student groups.

     Glickman recalled a conversation with a Washington, D.C. area student
whose parents made him volunteer at the local food bank in order to meet his
graduation requirements.  "With six weeks to go until graduation, the
student has exceeded the requirement and has discovered how fulfilling
helping others can be. I know that here in Wichita we can have the same
results -- turning these young people on to the importance and value of
community service."

     Glickman also announced that McConnell Air Force Base will expand
their food recovery efforts in order to help even more people in need. 

     Today's announcement is part of continuing efforts by the Clinton
Administration to encourage gleaning and food recovery.

     Last month, Glickman announced that USDA would help Washington, D.C.
     area students meet their community service graduation requirements
     through gleaning and food recovery

     President Clinton issued an executive memorandum so that all Federal
     departments and agencies will recover excess food.  The memorandum,
     issued Nov. 23, 1996, also established an interagency task force on
     gleaning and food recovery that will be headed by Secretary Glickman.
     The task force's first meeting will be Wednesday, April 23 in
     Washington, D.C.

     On Oct. 1, 1996, the President signed into law the Bill Emerson Good
     Samaritan Food Donation Act, which will significantly increase the
     amount of food recovered by creating a uniform national standard of
     liability protection for non-profit groups, corporations, and private
     citizens who act in good faith recover excess food;

     Last fall USDA published A Citizens Guide to Food Recovery, a resource
     on food recovery programs for businesses, community-based profit or
     nonprofit organizations, private citizens and public officials;

     In April 1996, USDA established a toll free number -- 1-800 GLEAN IT 
     -- to provide information on local gleaning and food recovery
     activities.  Since then more than 3,000 people have called the
     hotline;

     In December 1995, Glickman hosted a National Round table on Gleaning
     and Food Recovery and since then has hosted several regional forums to
     find solutions to barriers to food donation;

     This past winter, USDA worked with the Fox Television Network to air a
     public service announcement on the popular Fox show Party of Five. 
     The PSA promoted food recovery and provided viewers with the 1-800
     GLEAN IT number; 

     At the Olympic Games in Atlanta and throughout the summer of  96, a
     handful of AmeriCorps members aided by USDA recovered over 1,000 tons
     of excess food -- enough to provide more than 1.3 million meals. 



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