Guinea-Bissau: school meals increase parents’ income and help children learn and thrive
By Charlotte Alves
In the middle of the school break Abi Mamjan and Cadi Cissé, sit side by side in the classroom of one of the elementary schools in Mansabá, a village in the region of Oio, northern Guinea-Bissau.
The two women are farmers who have come here to attend a meeting for the implementation of the school meals programme. It’s an exciting and important event. Other attendees include individuals from the smallholder farmers’ group, school committee members, parents, representatives of Non-Government Organisations; as well as officials of the Ministry of Education and staff members from the World Food Programme (WFP).
Abi and Cadi are themselves members of the women’s association of smallholder farmers.
A few years ago, they would carry their tubers and beans to the nearest market every morning, hoping to sell it all and make profit from their hard work. Now, they feel much less worried as the market is at their doorstep. Their farm produce is mostly purchased by WFP as primary source of food for school canteens.
Before, our produce would often spoil, because it would take a long time to take it to the market and sell everything. After a while, the beans and the [sweet] potatoes would start to breed bugs. Now WFP buys [our produce] and takes it [to schools] at the same time. We feel more relaxed,” confesses mother of five, Abi.
“Transport was also a great challenge for me. I often had to go to the markets of Mansabá and Farim to sell my produce, but I wasn’t always able to pay for transport costs. That changed when [WFP] started coming directly to us to buy [our produce],” she adds.
One of Abi’s children is a student in Mansabá and benefits every day from WFP-provided hot meals. Implemented in collaboration with the local community members, WFP’s school meals programme has improved Abi’s life and her children’s education over the last three years.
“Since I started selling my produce to WFP, I was able to buy a bicycle for my son to go to school. As he eats at school, I no longer have to give him money for food. All I had to do was to save the little money to buy a bicycle for my son, and now he can go to school, learn and eat a nutritious meal”
For Cadi, the positive contribution of WFP to her children’s nutrition and health is obvious and represents a strong incentive for her to continue collaborating with the organization.
“Everything that WFP buys from us goes to feed our own children. This is why we are happy with, and continue to collaborate on this project,” Cadi quips.
Since 2019, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and local NGOs, WFP has been providing food assistance to elementary schoolchildren. WFP provides rice, canned fish and locally procured products, including beans and tubers, to 150,000 elementary schoolchildren in 700 schools through its school feeding programme, an initiative that uses locally purchased food to feed school children and stimulate local agricultural production.
Local food purchase for school feeding benefits local communities at multiple levels. Schools can improve the nutritional value of their meals by including locally grown, fresh, and nutritious tubers and beans. Local smallholder farmers, mostly women, are provided with a predictable outlet for their products, leading to stable income and better capacity to diversify and increase their production.
Guinea-Bissau’s school feeding programme is supported by in-kind donations from China and Japan (rice and canned fish respectively), as well as financial contributions from Japan, IFAD and China for local purchase of food.