World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

School children standing to greet their teacher at the start of the day.

School girls wash their hands before taking their nutritious mid-morning snacks provided by WFP in Santhong village, southern Lao PDR.

More than 152,000 pre-primary and primary school children in the poorest districts in Lao PDR get to eat a nutritious snack at school every day after the first two hours of morning classes.

In over 1,500 villages, women freshly steam or fry the snack every day. They mix WFP Super Cereal, a flour made from corn and soya and enriched with important vitamins and minerals, with sugar and vegetable oil and then shape them into small patties for cooking.

The snack not only tastes delicious, it also contains vitamins and minerals as well as fat, something children in many remote areas do not get enough of in their traditional meals.

WFP School Meals - nutritious, sweet patties made of corn soya blend - ensure good nutrition while helping students focus on their studies.

A girl happily receives corn-soya blend patties, a healthy mid-morning snack which WFP provides daily at Naese school in Santhong village in southern Lao PDR.

Daily nutritious meals in school help children concentrate on their studies so they can learn and perform better in class.

A child sports a WFP hat at a primary school in Saravane province, southern Lao PDR, where WFP provides nutritious school snacks to children.

School meals also encourage parents to send their kids to school:  From 2002 to 2010, the enrolment rate in WFP-assisted provinces has grown two times faster than the national average, with enrolment among girls rising from 53 to 85 percent.

Primary school boys from Santhong village in Saravane province enjoy a nutritious mid-morning snacks made of corn-soya blend provided by WFP during their break from classes.

Education helps break the cycle of poverty and undernutrition: educated children, like these fourth-graders in Santhong village, grow into men and women who can earn more and in turn, are more likely to be able to provide enough food to their own children and send them to school.