Beirut
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has launched a school meal programme financed by Italian Development Cooperation, to assist Lebanese and Syrian children attending public elementary schools in Lebanon. “By providing nutritious daily meals to school children, the WFP assures them a better nutritional intake and encourages parents to send them to school regularly,” said WFP director in Lebanon, Dominik Heinrich. The meals include a carton of milk or fruit juice, locally produced snacks and fruit. The arrival of over one million Syrian refugees in the last five years has put Lebanese public services, including the education sector, to the test. In order to tackle the situation, over 250 of the Country’s public schools have introduced a two-shift system in order to enable the attendance of a larger number of students. This programme offers nutritious daily meals to 10,000 children attending 13 of these public elementary schools. The schools were chosen among Lebanon’s most vulnerable communities singled out by UNICEF and by the UNHCR. The programme is implemented in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.