In an article for the Tennessean newspaper (12/27/2007), Jennifer Mizgata, of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), emphasized the importance of school feeding for developing countries. Mizgata wrote, "As we long ago discovered in the U.S., providing a simple meal each day not only encourages students to stay in school, but helps them focus in the classroom. For many children in the poorest countries, this is the only meal they receive each day."

School meals in support of education are vital ingredients for a developing nation, but in impoverished countries it is a significant challenge to provide these meals. At a time of high food prices the task becomes even more difficult. In El Salvador, the WFP is helping the government develop a self-sufficient school feeding program for all its children. We will look more closely at this program in this interview with Carlo Scaramella, the WFP Country director for El Salvador.

How many children are benefiting from the WFP school feeding programs within the country?

The transfer of the school feeding program to the El Salvador Government (Ministry of Education) was completed at the end of 2007 as part of an agreed plan between state authorities and WFP. The plan involved a gradual transfer of funding and operational responsibilities during the final years of WFP program administration. By the end of 2007, WFP handed the last two departments (Morazan and Auachapan) over to the state.

Meanwhile, the government was able to ensure the absorption of the school feeding program funding requirements under the regular state budget, providing long term sustainability for the program. Currently, about 750,000 children receive regular school feeding program support in the country.

Concurrent with the transfer of responsibility, WFP and the Ministry of Education have been developing a Memorandum of Understanding regarding continuing school feeding program collaboration in several areas, including procurement, logistics, programming, quality control, monitoring, and evaluation. This agreement, signed in February 2008, was particularly timely in allowing WFP to step up its collaboration with the Ministry of Education, among others, in strategic procurement at a time of rising food prices.