ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳

The price of failing to fund children¡¯s school meals far outweighs the cost of such programmes, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley said yesterday (28 July).

¡°We all understand the power of children getting an education, and we also understand the power of children getting a good school meal,¡± said Beasley, addressing the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit in Rome. 

¡°The question to me is: ¡®What¡¯s the cost of NOT providing a school meal to all the children on the planet?¡¯ If you want increased poverty, don¡¯t provide school meals. If you want more child marriages, don¡¯t  provide school meals. If you want more destabilization and migration, and recruitment by extremist groups, don¡¯t provide school meals. 

¡°But if you want to see stronger local communities, and teen-pregnancy rates drop, and educational opportunities increase, and GDP and economic empowerment, especially of girls ¨C if you want to see that increase, then provide school meals.¡±

Beasley also quoted a World Bank report of 2018, which indicated that limited educational opportunities for girls, and barriers to completing 12 years of education, were costing countries up to US$30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings. 

The Executive Director was speaking at the session School Meals Coalition: Nutrition, Health and Education for Every Child. The coalition is a government-led initiative, supported by WFP, to drive urgent action that improves and strengthens school meal systems globally.

Beasley highlighted analysis ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳had conducted with Harvard University, which found that each US$1 invested in school feeding yielded US$9 in economic returns.

¡°We have 73 million vulnerable children in the world today that don¡¯t get a school meal, regardless of COVID,¡± said the Executive Director. The price tag to reach these children and make up ground lost to COVID-19 is US$4.7 billion, but ¡°the price tag of not providing school meals is multiple times that¡±. 

School Meals Coalition: Uniting to transform the lives of children

UN Food Systems Pre-Summit: Why governments are working to provide millions of schoolchildren with what is often their only nutritious, healthy meal of the day

ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳is the principal humanitarian organization supplying meals, feeding up to 17 million children. A further 40 million children are fed by government programmes supported by WFP.

COVID-19 had a devastating impact on this support, with a total 1.6 billion children out of school at the height of the pandemic. The agency moved fast, in coordination with its partners, to provide home-grown school meals, vouchers and take-home rations. 

Now the School Meals Coalition will bring together governments, UN agencies, civil society, the private sector, academia and others to re-establish, improve and scale-up school meals programmes around the world. The ultimate aim is to ensure that every child has the opportunity of a healthy, nutritious meal in school by 2030.

¡°We know that our children are the future of a safer, healthier and more peaceful planet,¡± added Beasley.