The United States Embassy in Port-au-Prince, through the United States Department of Agriculture, has granted $33 million to the World Food Program (WFP) to provide daily hot meals to approximately 75,000 Haitian preschool and preschool students. primary education in the North and North-East departments between 2024 and 2028.

This new donation comes from the international food for education and child nutrition program "McGovern-Dole" (MGD) and aims to increase school enrollment and retention, promote good nutrition, water sanitation and hygiene practices, and to improve the learning of school-aged children through improving the quality of classroom teaching. This donation will be implemented in close collaboration with the Ministry of National Education.

Lezt's remember that the current 'McGovern-Dole' project, which ends in 2024, has made it possible to provide school meals to around 100,000 students in the departments of Nord, Nord-Est and Grand'Anse.

In line with the Government of Haiti's strategy, the MGD fund will be used to finance the traditional school curriculum and also source local products. A total of 5,600 metric tons of donated goods from the American people, including vegetable oil, rice, beans, lentils and bulgur and 2,000 metric tons of Haiti-grown produce will be distributed for the meals.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the WFP will work with Agricultural Producer Organizations (OPAs), local partners to ensure the availability of infrastructure for the consolidation, packaging and marketing of fresh and dry produce. WFP and its partners will provide training to smallholder farmers and equip them to supply high quality products in the school canteen program while improving their knowledge of business and conservation techniques.

HL/ HaitiLibre