250,000 school children receive food from WFP

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct. 13: UN World Food Programme Executive Director Catherine Bertini today said a global school feeding programme for the world’s undernourished children is a key weapon in the war against hunger and poverty.

Bertini called on national governments and members of the humanitarian aid community to join her efforts to create such a progarmme.

"Feeding and educating children are key to closing the gap between rich and poor" said Bertini on the eve of this year’s World Food Day 2001, the theme of which is "Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty."

Bertini, whose organisation is the largest provider of school meals in the developing world, says that research and decades of experience show that school feeding can immediately alleviate hunger, dramatically increase attendance, improve performance, and ultimately help educate many more girls and boys. WFP has nearly 40 years experience in school feeding and provides meals to more than 12 million school children in 54 countries.

"Study after study shows that when food is provided at school, children attend more often and they achieve and thrive," she said.

There are currently more than 300 million chronically hungry children in the world today. Some 170 million of them go to school on empty stomachs and don’t receive any food during the day, while 130 million don’t attend school at all. The majority of them are girls.

"Some people exploit ignorance and poor children are the most susceptible," she said.

"World leaders should strongly examine the benefits of school feeding as a simple but effective tool to help exterminate poverty. It also encourages children to go to school to improve their minds and to think for themselves."

Currently, WFP Nepal has been providing food to 250,000 school children at public primary schools in 16 districts of Mid and Far Western region of the country under the School Feeding Programme. The total contribution valued at US$15 million (inclusive of 23,490 MT of food contribution). The school children receive a mid-day hot meal (haluwa) made of fortified blended food (maize, wheat and soya), vegetable ghee and sugar. The School Feeding Programme also act as a vehicle for the deworming campaign for school children which can be considered as a good example of WFP-WHO collaboration.

WFP has already taken concrete steps to expand and improve its current school feeding activities and has formed partnerships with other UN agencies, such as the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, as well as a large number of charities. Recent donations from the United States, Italy, Switzerland and France have also helped the agency reach more children.

A recent contribution from the U.S. Government has enabled to expand the School Feeding Programme Nepal to cover 5 more districts making a total of 21 districts. The total additional contribution for this year is valued at US $5.8 million (inclusive of 5,460 MT of food contribution).

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