WFP to stop funding school feeding programme

The World Food Programme (WFP) will stop funding the school feeding programme in two years.

This will leave over 1.5 million children who benefit from the programme in arid and semi-arid regions at risk of dropping out of school.

WFP Deputy Country Director Paul Turnbull has said the feeding programme was being gradually handed over to the government and that it expected to fully dissociate itself from it in two years.

He said the Kenyan government through the Ministry of Education will run the programme.

He was speaking in Lodwar town on Tuesday when he paid a courtesy call to Turkana governor Josephat Nanok.

Since 1980s, the WFP has been feeding over 1.5 million children across the country by providing lunch through funding from various countries and organisations.

'RESOURCES BREAK'

Mr Turnbull said that they have been assisting many children across several counties but that WFP has lately been unable to provide food for the schools under its programme because of what he termed “resources break”.

"We are gradually handing over the programme to the government county-by-county especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Samburu and Isiolo have already been handed over with Taita Taveta being next," he said.

WFP is however still expected to support the programme for the ongoing second term in Turkana.

Turkana County Director of Education Pius Ng’oma confirmed that high absenteeism rate reported in many schools in the region was contributed by an acute lack of food for learners in schools.

“When there is no food in schools the attendance is very low. Schools that have food always witness a unique trend where children flock to school around lunch time just to get their share of food and go back home,” he said.

Mr Ng’oma said that in Turkana, porridge should be given to the children in the morning to improve class attendance and in the evening to improve on their retention for the next day.