Rwanda: UN urgency to embark on home grown school feeding

The World food programme Country Director , Mr Abdoulaye Balde, paid a courtesy call on the Rwandan Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi on August 8, 2012, where he revealed that the UN urgency is planning to embark on the home grown school feeding.

According to him WFP, was to use domestic food products in its school feeding programme in Rwanda.

The WFP in Rwanda relies on imported food products from donor countries to implement its school feeding programme.

In his discussion with the Prime Minister, Abdoulaye said: “the UN wants to shift to home grown school feeding using locally available food products.”

“When we are currently providing excellent school feeding-bringing food and distributing in schools, we are feeding 350 thousand children in 200 schools, but we would like to move to what is called home grown school feeding, where the food is produced locally and there is a connection between the school and the production,” Abdoulaye.

Home grown school feeding helps school children to grow up healthy, develop their intellectual capacity and to follow well given lessons at school.

“We may have farmers who may not have access to the markets, but when the school calls to the demand for the food, then we can solve the food from the community itself.”

He said that if all goes along with the plan, their revealed school feeding programme will start in 2013, adding that for the new programme to be successful there should be a collaboration from the Ministries of Education, Agriculture, Health and trade.

The current school feed programme focuses on the districts of Nyamagabe and Nyaruguru where students get midday meals at their schools.

This will help both student and parents keep up regular attendance mainly among girls.