As Mary’s Meals and Partners Support Local Farmers In Securing Nutritious Food For Thousands Of Liberian Children
The 8th Africa Day of School Feeding was successfully held over the weekend in Liberia’s western city of Tubmanburg, Bomi County, with Mary’s Meals hosting the occasion attended by Liberian government officials, USAID, the UN FAO and other international partners.
The theme of this year’s celebrations is: “Boosting Local Food Procurement Systems and Regional Value Chains in context of AfCFTA for Sustained Home-grown School Feeding”.
Serving as keynote speaker at the 8th Africa Day School Feeding program, Liberia’s Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection.
Minister Williametta E. Saydee-Tarr said that investment nutritional food is critical to the mental development of children, urging African leaders to invest more in this sector.
In January 2016, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union passed the decision AU Assembly acknowledging school feeding contribution to human resources development in Africa,
Since then, March 1st, which this year falls on Sunday, has been celebrated to highlight the need to increase the consumption of locally produced food items, including the promotion of innovative school feeding programs that use food items sourced from the local farming community.
Speaking at the occasion, Lusungu Ngulube, Head of Programmes, Mary’s Meals Liberia commended donors like the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) for their “generous support” with grants and stakeholders who over the years share in helping to address the needs of hungry children,
Lusungu Ngulube
“On behalf of the entire Mary’s Meals global movement, I want to express our heartfelt appreciation to the organizing committee. We are delighted to be part of this celebration to commemorate the 8th Africa Day of School Feeding here in Bomi County today – the same county where Mary’s Meals in Liberia served its first ever meals to children attending school,” Mr. Ngulube said.
While Mary’s Meals school feeding program in Liberia started in Liberia since 2016, it began providing meals to children in this West African country dating back to the first civil war in 1992
USAID Education Office Director in Liberia, Anh Pham said, “School feeding provides critically needed social safety nets for Liberia’s poorest families, especially during this challenging era of rapid increases in food prices and global food shortages.”
Ms. Pham disclosed that in partnership with Mary’s Meals, a daily nutritious meal is being provided in 241 schools to more than 45,000 students in Bomi, Bong, Gbarpolu, Grand Cape Mount, and Montserrado counties.
Anh Pham
The United States Department of Agriculture, with partners Save the Children and Mercy Corps also provides school feeding in 234 schools to more than 50,000 students in Grand Gedeh, River Gee, Rivercess, and Grand Bassa counties, the USAID Education Office Director also disclosed.
According to Ms. Pahm, USAID plans to expand this support to reach more student, amid the worsening problems of food insecurity, adding that “many Liberian students are unable to get enough food to meet their daily nutritional needs.”