World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The new school year kicked off in Kyrgyzstan a few days ago giving way to WFP’s pilot school meals project in 59 rural primary schools across the country. This academic year more than 10,300 children began receiving improved school meals that include nutritious soup, porridges and pastry baked using WFP’s fortified wheat flour. The new meal replaced tea and bread rolls in school kitchens.

WFP collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Health and local authorities to improve schools infrastructure and food procurement for school lunches.

A school cook is baking bread for the children’s lunch. WFP provides schools with fortified wheat flour while the government funds the procurement of other food products such as oil, vegetables, pulses etc. Parents also contribute to complement the school meal with fresh produce or dried fruits to serve the children a full meal during the school day.

This school in Suzak village has to prepare lunches over six shifts to serve 1000 children each school day. Thanks to the WFP-supported project, the school now boasts modern kitchen equipment. Also, local authorities and parents contributed in renovating water and electricity supply systems to enable the school prepare fresh nutritious lunches every day.

A remote school in Kenesh village decided that lunches shall be as cheerful as they are nutritious and tasty and cheerful. The school uses those colourful mugs to lighten up the children’s day and lift their spirits to improve their school performance. While WFP provides wheat flour enriched with vital vitamins and micronutrients, parents compliment the school lunches with fresh vegetables – all on top of the Government-funded meals.

This is Aliya Khusanova’s first working day in a renovated kitchen at a primary school in Bazar-Korgon village. Aliya is cooking soup and pastry for 550 children. The school has introduced a new WFP-recommended school meal model that promotes using the government's school meals funding to cook soups and porridges instead of purchasing ready-to-eat bread rolls or cookies as they used to do before.

The challenges that pilot schools had to overcome to start improved school meals were colossal; many did not have water supply or working sewage while kitchen equipment and facilities were literary falling apart. However, months of dedicated work to fix all infrastructure problems were rewarded at the very first day of serving improved lunches – children ate soup with gusto!

By the end of 2014, WFP will be reaching over 25,000 primary schoolchildren in Kyrgyzstan’s poorest provinces while at the same time assisting the Kyrgyz Government in strengthening its national school feeding programme.