Source: WFP exceeds school feeding target – DailyNews Live
Helen Kadirire 9 April 2017
HARARE – World Food Programme (WFP) has exceeded its school feeding scheme
by more than 1 000 from its targeted 76 000 children.
In an interview with the Daily News on Sunday, WFP country director Eddie
Rowe said the programme had been targeting drought-stricken areas of the
country.
“We actually surpassed our target and were able to reach 78 000 children
in the programme which assisted children in Zvishavane, Mbire and Binga
districts. The programme cost more than $2,5 million.
“When the programme started it had approximately 9 800 pupils but
increased to 35 525 children by October,” Rowe said.
He said the school feeding programme was a short-term safety net by the
WFP which targeted primary school children, providing them with a
mid-morning porridge of fortified corn-soya blend.
The country director emphasised that the long-term vision was to provide
technical support to the government to re-establish the national school
feeding programme.
Rowe highlighted that some of the children’s diets was not nutritious
enough, resulting in stunting and malnutrition.
He said monotonous diets of sadza and leafy vegetables meant that children
under five grew up with minimal micro-nutrients and vitamins.
The WFP country director said the aid agency was now trying to work with
small holder farmers in rural areas to diversify their produce into
sorghum, sugar beans and other small grains.
“We want the farmers to move from only producing maize as their only
produce,” Rowe said.
COMMENTS