5.9 Million Nigerian Children in Severe Food, Nutrition Crisis – UN

Students served lunch at Alduba Primary School as WfP’s home grown School feeding programs in Ethiopia’s South Omo zone. WFP supported Home-Grown School Feeding Program (HGSFP) was first launched in SNNPR in 2012 targeting 30,673 students located in 37 pre-primary and primary schools in seven woredas of Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region with the aim of providing safe, diversified, nutritious and more importantly locally produced school meals to support the regional government increasing school enrollment and retention rates while reducing dropout and school absenteeism of chronically food insecure pastoralist and agropastoral areas of the region. Over the years the program has expanded to increase its project woredas and target schools.I n the last scholastic calendar, first half of 2022, the program was able to reach over 57,000 school aged children attending pre-primary and primary schools in 7 project woredas, six from South Omo Zone and Alle Special woredas. As such the Fresh Food Inclusive School Meal was piloted in 12 targeted schools from two woredas of South Omo Zone (Bena Tsemay and Dassenech woreda) with the objective of filling the nutrient gap encountered with the existing menu. More precisely over 4,000 students have benefited from a diversified nutritious school meal provided by the pilot project that not only fills the students stomach but also their minds. During Sep-Dec 2022 the pilot project has expanded further reaching over 9,000 students with plans to reach over 15,000 students in 34 project schools in 2023. Similarly, WFP has financed and conducted an advocacy work for school gardening activities of the Fresh Food Inclusive School Meal targeted schools which regardless of some challenges has shown to be fruitful whereby most schools were able to produce garden vegetables that can complement the school meals.