Our Investment in School Meals is Our Investment in Education

07.08.2025 - 18:00:24

Education Cannot Wait New York

indicates that ECW investments for quality school feeding interventions active in 2023 reached over 300,000 children across nine countries.

In Ethiopia, ECW investments reached around 100,000 children through school feeding programmes. Recognizing that poverty was a crucial factor keeping children out of school, the programme involved families and community members to manage the programme and provide in-kind contributions like building kitchen houses or providing firewood to cook the hot meals.

In Cameroon and Haiti, ECW funding delivered by WFP is focused on local procurement from smallholder farmers. This not only ensures nutritious meals for young learners, but also strengthens the local food system and local economy.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, over 39,000 students in 69 schools have received nutritious meals through an ECW-funded programme delivered by UNICEF.

The needs are skyrocketing. With ongoing conflicts in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan creating ripple effects across Africa – and indeed across the globe – we must ensure that school meals in education investments remain at the top of the international humanitarian funding agenda.

ECW connects across various sectors to accelerate the collective impact of humanitarian funding. Together, we can keep hope alive for the 234 million crisis-impacted children that urgently need our support.