School Meals Coalition Hopes to Provide a Meal to Every Child

School meals have a host of benefits, including improving enrollments and preventing malnutrition. Now the School Meals Coalition plans to recruit local food producers to assist in the programme. Credit: Bill Wegener/UnsplashBy Naureen HossainUnited Nations, Nov 26 2021 (IPS) Meals at schools not only give each child a nutritious meal but increase enrolments, among other benefits. This emerged at a recent launch of the School Meals Coalition, a new initiative that aims to give every child a nutritious meal by 2030 through bolstering health and nutrition programmes. The coalition comprises over 60 countries and 55 partners dedicated to restoring, improving and up-scaling meal programs and food systems. Among their partners are UN agencies UNICEF, World Food Programme (WFP), UN Nutrition, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and UNESCO. In the briefing, the speakers identified School Meals Coalition’s primary goals to restore school meal programmes to the status before the COVID-19 pandemic and reach children in vulnerable areas who have not accessed these plans before. The member countries’ political leaders have come together to support this “important initiative”, according to the permanent representative of Finland to the United Nations, Jukka Salovaara. “School meals are so much more than just a plate of food. It’s really an opportunity to transform communities, improve education, and food systems globally,” he said. School meal programmes are a signific...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Aid Civil Society Development & Aid Education Featured Food Security and Nutrition Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations ​ #FoodEducation #ECW #SchoolMeals WFP Source Type: news