Counterpart International's school feeding programs provide an important opportunity to assist poor families and feed hungry children, while improving children's education.

Every day, Counterpart International (Counterpart) supplies a hot, nutritious meal to more than 40,000 pre-school and primary schoolchildren in West Africa. These meals combat schoolchildren's hunger, support nutrition through micronutrient-fortified food and improve their concentration in school. The meals also encourage poor families to send their children to school and keep them there, increasing school attendance and enrollment. Without this incentive, the lack of food in households often obliges children to give up their education so that they may support their families. This dynamic reinforces the cycle of illiteracy and poverty among poor families.

Counterpart's school feeding programs do more than provide daily school lunches; they integrate activities such as nutrition, sustainable agriculture and small grants to enhance program effectiveness and sustainability. For example, Counterpart educates schoolchildren on nutrition and hygiene practices and provides vitamin A supplementation and de-worming, which reduces illness and improves their overall health. Complementary health and nutrition activities in surrounding communities and pre-schools provide a diverse range of health services to children under 5 years of age and their families that include growth monitoring and promotion, information and education campaigns, prenatal consultations and home visits to families of malnourished children.

Counterpart also trains school officials, local farmers and schoolchildren in agricultural techniques to develop school gardens and produce food to supplement or supply school feeding programs. Small grants fund community development projects and income-generating activities that support the upkeep of school infrastructure or supply libraries. These multiple and complementary interventions ensure that Counterpart's school feeding programs not only relieve hunger in schoolchildren but also can be part of the solution to alleviate poverty and promote economic development in communities.

Examples:

• In northern Senegal, school feeding activities under Counterpart's USAID-funded Title II Food for Peace program increased enrollment rates for primary school children by 55 percent; reduced absentee rates by 84 percent; and increased the exam success rate for 6th graders (to pass to the next grade) by 79 percent. 
• In northern Senegal, Counterpart piloted a USAID-funded Vulnerable Schools Program that improved the living and learning conditions of more than 4,000 students attending rural Koranic schools (Daaras). Students of Daaras, usually from poor families in the surrounding communities, are often required to beg for their food and may not receive instruction in basic subjects such as mathematics and reading. Counterpart was able to reach out to the Daaras by providing daily school meals and rehabilitating school infrastructure, and, later, introducing literacy and mathematics tutelage, and health and nutrition education and services.

Photo: © Kyla Springer/Counterpart International.