World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

A team from Yum! Brands Canada came to Nicaragua to visit schools where hot meals are served thanks to the company's support. In Nicaragua, through the School Feeding Programme of the Ministry of Education, WFP provides micronutrient fortified food to 175,000 children in the poorest areas of this Central American nation. 

Ana María Gómez is part of a group of parents who participate in the School Feeding Committee (CAE) in the rural school of Las Cruces in the Nueva Segovia department. In this photo she cooks the micronutrient-fortified corn-soy blend which will be served with rice, beans and warm tortillas to school children.

Meet the Yum! Brands Canada team who visited Nicaragua to learn first hand about the situation of rural communities where the School Feeding Programme is being implemented. From left to right: Casey Rowlinson, Karen Goulding, Juergen Schrodel and Tia MacRae (all from Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell Restaurants, and the World Hunger Relief Campaign). In recent years, Yum! Brands' contributions to the school meals programmes has allowed children to keep receiving a daily hot meal in school and concentrate on their lessons.

Karen Goulding, Canada KFC General Manager, temporarily changed her business role and joined mothers of Las Cruces school. She served meals to school children who pointed out that beans, tortillas and the corn-soy blend are their favorite meal.

"The school meal programme motivates children to come to school. They know that here they have a warm meal that sometimes they don’t get at their homes," said Luisa Amelia Ruiz, pre-school teacher at Las Cruces school (standing in the photo). "They are happy because they have full stomachs," she said.