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FoodforEducation
Since IPHD began its school lunch program in 2001 under the USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, it has distributed 111,368 metric tons of U.S. food, and over 4,000 metric tons of locally purchased or locally contributed foods. IPHD provided American food commodities donated by USDA annually to almost Congo Republic In the Congo Republic, IPHD fed annually between 217,696 to 65, 215 children, including pygmy children in Lekoumou Province. Presently, it is developing a plan to transition this program to the Congolese Government.
IPHD began its Food for Education program in Moldova in 2001 and reached 401,000 pre-school and primary school children with daily prepared meals under this first agreement. Prior to 2001, the school lunch program, there was a milk program, which had disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. In this first IPHD program, IPHD had to organize a vast infrastructure reaching almost 4,000 schools, one of USDA's largest Food for Education programs. Local officials were often skeptical that IPHD would have success. The program put a good deal of effort into creating and strengthening PTAs and local community groups to help develop the program infrastructure. IPHD subsequently had three other USDA/FFE agreements, 2003, 2004 and 2005. When IPHD began the program, there was almost zero funding for school lunches. When IPHD closed this program in 2008, the Moldovan Government was budgeting between $20-$30 million annually. Local community participation was the key to this success. In 2008, IPHD transitioned 370,000 children in its program to government support. Under the four agreements, IPHD had to repair and furnish school kitchens. Most were in terrible condition after years of disuse and neglect. In order to approve a school lunch for each school, the government had to certify the cooking facilities. By 2008, IPHD had developed and strengthened close to 1,500 PTAs and community groups. It also built water systems and sanitary facilities for a number of schools. With breadflour from the USDA, IPHD made about 20,000 tons of pasta under these four agreements. Other food provided by USDA included potato flakes, rice, pinto beans, vegetable oil and in one year corn-soy-milk (CSM). During the period 2001-2008, 1.6 million children were fed, an average of 406,910 per agreement annually. In 2005, Dr. William Pruzensky, IPHD President, met with the Vice Prime Minister of Moldova who told Dr. Pruzensky that when IPHD initiated the program, he did not think IPHD would succeed in its goal. He admitted he was wrong and said that IPHD had created such vast community involvement that if IPHD were to leave or end the FFE program, the government would be forced to take it on and continue it. IPHD saw this partly as a program to help build a more democratic society, and it made a greater and more lasting contribution to this end than most aid programs.
IPHD began its USDA-supported Food for Education Program in 2005 in this very poor country, listed as among the ten poorest nations in the world by most UN statistics. The program targeted 43,200 pre-school and primary school children in the beginning; today it reaches 105,250 children daily in 400 primary or elementary schools and 60 pre-schools with meals prepared from USDA donated rice, potato flakes, beans, and vegetable oil, as also local foods. The program is concentrated in the central and western regions of the country. Every year final enrolment has increased over initial enrolment by 7.07 percent to 9.7 percent. The drop-out rate of those enrolled has fallen to well under 10 percent. Absenteeism has fallen from an average of over 2,000 children per month to as low as 1,160 children per month. In order to undertake an effective FFE Program in Guinea-Bissau, IPHD enlisted the support of local communities to prepare and serve the food, to contribute with fuel and locally grown foods, and when possible with money. As a result, each school has a school lunch management committee. In addition, IPHD developed 270 local PTA groups, and in December 2010, along with AMIC (Associação dos Amigos da Criança), its local NGO partner, established the country's first national PTA association, with the secretariat temporarily in the IPHD offices. IPHD has also had to repair, build and furnish school kitchens and build water and sanitary facilities for schools. Since early 2009, IPHD has also helped to create 90 school gardens. Will IPHD be able to transition this program to the Government of Guinea-Bissau in 2011? While IPHD has strong support for its program, the government budget is small so IPHD is strengthening the private sector involvement to facilitate an eventual transition. |
500,000 primary and pre-primary or kindergarten children in prepared meals daily between 2001 and 2008, and between 2008-2010 to over 200,000 children daily. Over this 9-year period, in all three countries, IPHD fed a total of 2,988,285 children.
