The program will feed Liberian students using home grown foods such as eddoes, cassava, sweet potatoes, fish and other vegetables grown by local farmers.

Speaking at the launch at the Pioneers Primary School in Ganta, WFP Deputy Country Director Wurie Alghassim said the program will increase the nutrition levels of school going kids, teach pupil how to grow their home consumed food, and boost enrolment in schools.

The program will also encourage Liberian farmers to gain value on food production and open access to markets as well.

Dating back to the 50’s, WFP has partnered with the Ministry of Education to provide food aid to the pupils of Liberia, but using foreign processed food, including beans, bulgar wheat and corn meal, among others.

The coordinator of the Ministry of Agriculture, Samuel Kerleay also speaking to press after the occasion said the school feeding program is a strategy by the government of Liberia to promote production of local food and fade out foreign supplies for pupils across the country.

The program is targeting six schools in Nimba, feeding about a thousand pupils as pilot and will subsequently take over the traditional school feeding program ongoing in other schools across the country.

The Home-Grown School Feeding Program is to gradually replace the current school meals program, using food produced by Liberian farmers for school meals for 300,000 primary school children across the country.

WFP and its partners plan to support local women farmers to grow and produce foods such as yams, cassava, potatoes and palm oil, and will then purchase those foods to use for school meals.

As well as encouraging a more varied and nutritious diet for Liberian school children, whose main staple food is rice, the program will bring new income opportunities for farmers, improve gender parity and also strengthen water and sanitation services.

“Partnerships with the Government of Liberia, FAO, UNICEF as well as UNDP have been crucial for setting up this initiative. It is this long-standing collaboration that has led to the development of home grown school meals in Liberia,” added Alghassim.

WFP supports school meals worldwide as a major safety net for encouraging primary school children to enrol, attend and remain in school.

In Liberia, WFP and the Ministry of Education increased the number of students receiving daily school meals from 127,000 to 300,000 in nine counties in April 2016.

LINA WGP/TSS/PTK