School meals have resumed with the re-opening of schools in Cambodia earlier this month. Photo supplied
School meal programmes resumed this month as the government and partner organisations seek to provide adequate nutrition for children and incentivise their return to classrooms following interruptions stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a joint press release on February 8, UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) said that in Cambodia, approximately 280,000 school children in 1,113 schools across 10 provinces missed free, nutritious school meals during nationwide school closures aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19.
“Fortunately, school meals have resumed with the re-opening of schools in Cambodia earlier this month, phased in to resume in all the schools with meal programmes supported by the government and WFP” by next month, the statement said.
UNICEF’s country representative Foroogh Foyouzat said with schools now open again, it is important that nutrition and support programmes also resume.
While continuing measures should be taken to minimise the risk of Covid-19, schools provide a perfect opportunity to help children from a young age to adopt healthy eating behaviours that can last throughout their lives.
“Nutrition education and school meals are powerful tools that will help children stay healthy and learn better,” she said.
Data from the Cambodia Covid-19 Joint Education Needs Assessment 2020, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Education Sector Working Group, indicates that 40 per cent of children consume fewer meals per day now compared with before the pandemic.
Of these children, over 50 per cent are from households which are already poor and reliant on national social assistance systems.
A UN Covid-19 socio-economic impact assessment for Cambodia further indicates that although the availability of food has not been affected greatly, many people have been forced by economic circumstances to adopt coping strategies including reducing food consumption or relying on cheaper, less nutritious options and the generosity of others.
WFP representative and country director Claire Conan noted that school health and nutrition programmes mitigated hunger and serve as a powerful incentive for children to return to school.
“This is especially true for the most vulnerable children, who rely most on school meals and for whom home-schooling is least available,” she said.
Education ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha told The Post on February 10 that the promotion of nutrition for students, especially those in the primary level, played an important role in the quality of children’s education.
“The ministry’s next step will be to continue to expand the scope of supplying nutrition to students in target schools. We welcome further cooperation from relevant parties in boosting the quality of nutrition to boost the quality of education for students,” he said.
More than 39 billion in-school meals have been missed globally since the start of the pandemic due to school closures.
A recent report by UNICEF and the WFP noted that 370 million children worldwide – many of whom are reliant on school meals as a key source of their daily nutrition – have missed 40 per cent of in-school meals, on average, since government restrictions began shuttering classrooms.
