World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Students on their way to school in São Tomé. WFP is providing school meals in 82 kindergartens and 81 primary and secondary schools on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. 

School cook Josepha Carvalho stands outside the school kitchen - she has been a cook at the de Almeirim school since 2000. WFP has installed energy-efficient stoves in all primary and secondary schools in São Tomé and Príncipe. 

Though food grows easily in São Tomé and Príncipe, where the soil is fertile and rainfall high, many children are not getting the nutrients they need. WFP has supported schools to establish gardens that produce fresh vegetables to complement the school meals.

Some of the ingredients that will go into the school meals to make them tastier and more nutritious for the children. 

The school canteen at the de Almeirim school before the children arrive for their meal. WFP provides the base of the meals, delivering rice, salt, sugar and oil fortified with Vitamins A and D every three months. 

Students run through the rain to get their school meal at the de Conde school in the hills outside of São Tomé town. 

Children wait in line for their meal at the de Conde school. WFP plans to start a gradual handover of the school meals programme to the Government in 2013. 

São Tomé and Príncipe's rate of stunting, measured by a low height to age ratio and a result of moderate acute malnutrition, is relatively high at 39%. School meals help provide children with the energy and nutrients they need to grow. 

School meals help children concentrate in class. Here, students at the de Almeirim school after they have just taken a maths test. 

At the de Almeirim school on the outskirts of Sao Tome town, a young boy stands in front of a mural painted by the school's students of their lives, including a scene of WFP school meals in the bottom right hand corner