Caretaker Minister of Education Abbas Halabi thanked the World Food Program (WFP) for their support in providing nutritional assistance to schools.
Minister Halabi also emphasized Lebanon's commitment to education despite the ongoing conflict.
Halabi was speaking on Monday during a meeting with Matthew Hollingworth, the Regional Director of the World Food Program in Lebanon, and Hazem Hassan, who oversees the school meal project.
The minister reiterated the importance of continuing efforts to feed more than 100,000 students through the school meal program, especially in light of the current emergency.
"We will continue to support the ministry's plan to provide school meals for more than 100,000 learners," he stated.
The Minister also called for expanding the program's coverage to include all public-school students due to the growing needs. "We need to deploy more school kitchens that serve multiple schools, especially those in need," Halabi added.
Hollingworth expressed gratitude for the cooperation with the ministry and announced plans to increase the number of students served by the program to 130,000. He also highlighted WFP’s recent efforts, including providing over 4.5 million hot meals to families in shelters.
"The school meal project supports local communities by purchasing food from regional farms and factories, helping to sustain livelihoods," he noted.
According to the WFP website: “WFP’s intervention through the school meals programme aims to address the critical issue of limited primary education for children while preventing short-term hunger and improving children’s food consumption. For this, WFP partnered with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) in 2016 to develop a school snacks programme with three components: the provision of nutritious daily school snacks, nutrition education, and health and nutrition summer camps.”
Comments