The decentralized school feeding model makes it possible to deliver fresh and nutritious food to children in rural schools, giving them the opportunity to have at least one healthy meal a day. This improves their nutritional intake and overall health and, in turn, increases school retention. In addition, WFP’s decentralized school feeding model facilitates linkages between schools and smallholder producers as food suppliers, boosting the local economy. WFP implemented a pilot school feeding project from 2016 to 2019 in conjunction with the local Imbabura, Montufar, Carchi, Sucumbios governments.
At the conclusion of this project, WFP handed the project over to the local governments, which each allocated a fixed budget for the programme and continue to implement it. Moreover, following the success of and lessons learned from this project, WFP led an advocacy process that resulted in the inclusion in the Law on Organic School Feeding other innovative, inclusive, and decentralized modalities, further stipulating that 30 percent of school meals must come from smallholder producers.
Read more at: Decentralized school feeding model
