Earlier this year I published an interview featuring the UN World Food Programme's school feeding initiative in the West Bank. School feeding was also started in the Gaza Strip this year.
In Gaza, during the first school session of 2009, the WFP program reached 50,950 children in 90 selected primary schools. Biscuits and milk were provided as well as take-home rations. WFP officer Ancel Kats states, "the programme supports the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) and its main objective is to maintain the enrolment of boys and girls in assisted schools at pre-crisis levels."
For the 2009/2010 school year, the program is scheduled to reach 92,336 children at 156 schools in Gaza.
School feeding is one of the silent tools for peace in the Gaza Strip and every effort should be made to fund this program and see it is expanded.
School feeding is known to boost class attendance and performance as well as fight hunger and poverty. School meals are a critical aspect of the proposed Roadmap to End Global Hunger legislation which is currently in Congress.
For more about the World Food Programme's work in the occupied Palestinian territory, visit the WFP web site.
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