WFP School Feeding Program Support

Hurricane Felix in September 2007 and heavy rainfalls in October of the same year seriously taxed the World Food Programme’s food reserves for Nicaragua. They also seriously damaged the crops in extremely poor areas of the country. CIDA’s support to the World Food Programme School feeding program helps address the needs generated by these disasters. The school feeding program focus is food support for pre-schools and primary schools. By providing a daily nutritious meal to children at school the program encourages parents to send pupils to school regularly. The school feeding program helps to break the poverty cycle related to malnutrition and hunger by: (i) increasing enrollment and attendance rates; (ii) improving concentration and learning by relieving short-term hunger; and (iii) increasing the primary school completion rate. The key expected results of this project are: (I) timely provision of nutritious food in sufficient quantity for targeted girls and boys (ii) increased enrolment of boys and girls in assisted schools (iii) improved attendance of boys and girls in assisted schools (iv) improved capacity to concentrate and learn among girls and boys in assisted schools. The School feeding program requires 16 755 mt of food for an average of 175 000 school children beneficiaries per year over five years.