Of the 300 million chronically hungry children in the world, a third – mostly girls – do not attend school. On empty stomachs, children are easily distracted and cannot concentrate properly. Hunger impedes a child's ability to learn and achieve. School feeding programmes offer nutritional food as well as a platform for addressing the poverty, war and disease that can affect a child’s health and education.

A report from the World Food Programme (WFP) describes how it is working with national governments, local authorities, donors, non-governmental organisations, communities and the private sector to use food to attract children to school and keep them there. In 2004, the WFP provided either school meals or take-home rations to feed more than 16.5 million children in schools in 72 countries. In Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kenya and North Korea alone, food was provided to over two million school children.

School feeding programmes are cost-effective – a child can be fed for a year for US$34 – and the programmes can double enrolments within a year. Offering take-home rations to girls is an incentive for parents to allow girls to attend school. Attending school means they are more likely to marry later, space their pregnancies and lead healthier and more economically productive lives.

The WFP report produces evidence that:

• In post-conflict states, classes help young people return to daily routines: the combination of food and education can help child soldiers safely trade in their weapons for food, learning and counselling.
• Bangladeshi children who receive food stay up to 1.4 years longer in primary school and have higher projected lifetime earnings (especially girls) compared to non-participants in school feeding programmes.
• School feeding programmes can slow the spread of HIV: eating nutritious food on a regular basis keeps people healthy and active; pupils with enough to eat are less likely to engage in risky behaviour such as selling their blood or sexual favours.
• Combining schooling and food is a cheap and administratively convenient way to support AIDS orphans and can be implemented through existing institutions with assistance from communities in identifying the children who need help.

Working closely with UNICEF, parents, and governments, WFP has developed an approach for improving the entire classroom environment. Important additions to traditional methods of food distribution are:

• micronutrient supplementation with iron-enhanced high-energy biscuits and iodised salt
• providing schools with clean water supplies, latrines for girls and de-worming treatments – two million children in school feeding programmes now have the opportunity to overcome the devastating effects of intestinal worms
• distribution of fuel-saving stoves to reduce the need for fuel-wood and time required for cooking
• hygiene, HIV/AIDS, sexual health and land-mine awareness education
• school gardens to teach sustainable agricultural techniques
• distribution of insecticide-treated nets and education about malaria symptoms and avoidance.

The gender gap in the distribution of school meals is narrowing as more girls are included. New software is allowing teachers and school officials to transmit programme data via satellite from ten countries. WFP aims to feed 50 million school children by 2008 – including every primary school child in Uganda and donors are exploring innovative approaches: the Italian government, for example, has signed a debt swap agreement with Egypt to free funds for further school feeding programmes.

Source(s):
‘Global School Feeding Report’ by the World Food Programme 2004 Full document.

Funded by: World Food Programme

id21 Research Highlight: 20 December 2005

Further Information:
WFP School Feeding Service
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
00148 Rome
Italy

Tel: +39-066513-1
Fax: +39-066513-2854
Contact the contributor: schoolfeeding@wfp.org

World Food Programme

Other related links:
'Providing for pre-adolescent girls in India'

'Feeding young minds: mental development of undernourished Jamaican children'

'Food for thought – do school meals improve classroom performance?'