Despite progress, school feeding coverage low where needed most: WFP
The number of meals served to children in countries with low incomes remains just four percent below levels pre-pandemic despite an overall improvement as per a new World Food Programme (WFP) report.
The number of children nourished through school meals has dropped by about 4 percent in countries with low incomes, and the largest decreases being observed within Africa, The State of School Feeding Worldwide 2022, released on March 21, 2023.
The high-income, middle-income, and countries with lower middle income showed an average, moderate increase of 4 four percent, 4 percent, and 12 percent, according to the report.
It emphasized the necessity for development partners to focus their assistance on countries with low incomes.
Despite the other post-pandemic needs and cash shortages, countries with low incomes have increased their national budget for school meals, which has increased from 30% by 2020 and up to 45 percent in 2022.
However, contributions from donors have slowed from 69 percent to 55 percent. This shortfall will likely be a reflection of the different priorities of donors, which have led to lower coverage despite least developed countries absorbing an increasing portion of the cost.
The rising levels of government funding are not matched by the stories of international assistance for school meals and have slowed to $214 million by 2022, down from 267 million dollars in the year 2020.
About 420 million kids around the globe are served school meals, a rise of 30 million (approximately 7 percent) of the children listed in the edition for 2020 of this report.
Out of the thirty million increase in children consuming school meals between the years 2020 and 2022, The five countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa made up 19 million of the growth by the number of youngsters who are fed in the report.
School meal programs are an essential safety net for families and children who are vulnerable, particularly at a time when 345 million people suffer from food insecurity that is threatening the entire world, including 153 million children and youth, according to WFP.
Schools’ meal programs can boost the number of students enrolled by 9 percent and attendance rates by 8 percent, according to the report. It also mentioned research showing that feeding programs at schools could have positive effects on the health of children, agriculture, education, and nutrition, in addition to social security, which yields $9 for every $1 spent.
School meal programs are also significant in job creation, in the area of between 1,000-2,000 jobs for every 100,000 students who receive school meals. Most of these positions are cooks and food preppers, but there are opportunities for different roles.
The study’s analysis is based on a sample of 176 nations, which is up from 163 countries in the year 2020. The data reported were accessible from 176 countries that account for about 1.2 billion school-age children in primary, preschool, and secondary schools across the nations.
