WFP delivers school meals in Nepal despite coronavirus closures
World Food Programme support helps vulnerable schoolchildren in Bajhang district maintain a nutritious diet
Story by Monica Upadhyay
Like many children in Nepal, for the past three months, Ashiki has missed out on school because of the coronavirus lockdown. She spends her time playing with her younger brother, helping her mother with household chores, and reads storybooks borrowed before from her school before it shut.
Ashiki says she often feels restless. “I worry because coronavirus keeps me going away from school, meeting my friends and from doing other important things that I like to do,” she says. “What I miss the most is eating school meals together as a family in the school kitchen.”
To ensure children and their families do not miss out on meals interrupted by the pandemic, the World Food Programme together with Nepal’s Ministry of Education and local government, is distributing around 1,500 metric tons of rice, lentils and vegetable oil, to 150,000 households, under strict safety and hygiene protocols.
The closure of schools is putting at risk the future of millions of children around the world, affecting not only their ability to learn but also their access to nutritious food and health-support schemes. WFP’s new estimates show that the number of acutely hungry in the countries where it operates could increase to 270 million this year — up by 82 percent on pre-pandemic figures, largely due to the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.
Since March, 2.4 million children in Nepal have been missing out on the nutritious lunches they used to receive at school — the only proper meals many of them could count on.
Big yellow mangoes
Ashiki’s day starts with a sumptuous breakfast of roasted corn and yoghurt, with a glass of fresh milk. She likes to have her breakfast in the courtyard where it is nice and sunny. Ashiki’s family are traditional buffalo farmers, so she gets to drink milk two times a day. This season, however, she is missing out on many seasonal fruits, including the big yellow mangoes from India, which under these circumstances are hard to find.
Every day, Ashiki makes a point of getting in some exercise. This includes carefully physically distanced walks together with her brother to the main water tank from where she brings water. “We come quickly in the morning to fill water because if the crowd comes coronavirus will spread,” she says. Ashiki giggles as she walks with her brother to the main tank from where she brings water for household chores.
As soon as they reach home, the first thing you see Ashiki doing is washing her hands using the techniques she learnt in school. “One of the cheapest and easiest ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is frequent handwashing,” she says, repeating the mantra as she first washes her hands with soap and water and then helps her brother do the same.
Making sure no-one misses meals
The nine-year-old often helps her mum in the kitchen as she cooks lunch for the family. The Puri family are still having normal meals, three times a day, even though they are eating less. “We have cut down on poultry and eggs, and we eat a less diversified meal to stretch our money a little further,” says Harka, Ashiki’s mum, as she toys with her handkerchief, knotted to keep safe the monthly allowance provided by her husband.
The largest provider of school meals in the world, since 2002 WFP has been serving free nutritious midday meals to 250,000 children in public primary schools in Bajhang and 10 other districts in Western Nepal with funding from US Department of Agriculture. Each plate of fortified rice, lentils, fortified vegetable oil and iodized salt provides 30 percent required daily allowances.
“The food provided at school is the only proper meal that many families in Bajhang can count in for their kids,” says Ashiki’s dad, Harka. “School meals mean a great deal to many families here in Bajhang, as food is scarce even at normal times.”
