USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program partnerships with local communities via the lens of Local Contribution

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Thurseday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Getting community buy-in for children's education

Proposal

The USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program as mandated by the US Congress shall “carry out preschool and school food for education program in foreign countries to improve food security, reduce the incidence of hunger, and improve literacy and primary education, particularly with respect to girls (Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002).” In particular a focus on “preschool and school-age children, in low-income areas where children’s enrollment and attendance in school is low or girl’s enrollment and participation in preschools or school is low, and incorporate developmental objectives for improving literacy and primary education, particularly with respect to girls(Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002).” However, these objectives cannot be carried out without contributions from the communities in which the program operates in.

Contribution from local communities to support children’s education looks different and yet similar across the 36 active projects that McGovern-Dole has in 27 different countries. According to the World Bank “the most sustainable programs are those that respond to the community needs, are locally owned and incorporate some form of parental or community contribution” (Global School Feeding Sourcebook, the World Bank). While this takes on a different form in every country, community buy-in often looks like contribution of firewood to prepare the meal, donation of space for storing commodities, financial contribution or donation of materials to improve the school structure, or volunteering to be the cook for the school preparing the daily meal. All of these forms of community contributions are equally important to overall sustainability to school meal programs and increasing children’s educational outcomes. With these various forms of contributions from the community, children are more likely to attend school regularly, and with the provision of a daily school meal children are likely to be more attentive during their daily lessons thus increasing their education outcome opportunities.

In this panel McGovern-Dole staff will discuss common themes across all programs of what community contribution can mean, what it looks like and how it leads to sustainable school feeding programs after the program ends which will continue to benefit children’s educational opportunities.

Author

• Ingrid Ardjosoediro, U.S. Department of Agriculture