Eat Well to Learn

Through our ‘Eat Well to Learn’ programme we provide at least 70 of the most vulnerable students at Kamuganguzi Janan Luwum Memorial Secondary School in Uganda with a hot meal every school day.

For many of those students, this is the only meal they eat each day – and many have to walk long distances to and from school. Without this meal, they would go hungry and as a result would be less able to concentrate during their lessons and learn effectively. Since 2012, we have provided at least 12,600 meals per year to pupils at the school.

Sustainability

We are working with the school management to find ways of improving the sustainability of their school meals programme so they do not remain dependent on our support. In 2017, we supported the establishment of a piggery at the school. Not only is this now providing more nutritious meals for the children and teachers, it is also generating much needed income for the school which can be used to increase the provision of school meals, keep school fees low, or make much needed improvements to the school infrastructure.

We continue to work with the school to find other distinct projects we can support to ensure the programme’s long-term future.

Impact of school meals

According to the World Food Programme:

‘‘A meal at school acts as a magnet to get children into the classroom. Continuing to provide a daily meal to children as they grow helps keep them in school… They allow children to focus on their studies rather than their stomachs and boost their education by increasing school enrolment and attendance, decreasing drop-out rates, and improving cognitive abilities.” (World Food Programme, 2015)

Paul Tergat (Kenyan Olympian medal winner and World record holder) attributes his success to the free school meals he received through the World Food Programme. As one of 17 siblings, he often went for days without a proper meal, and says: “Without food, it was very difficult to walk to school, let alone concentrate on our studies.”

According to Tergat, the free meals he received as a child did more to help him achieve success than anything else. Before receiving free school meals, Tergat recalls going for days without a proper meal. This omnipresent hunger made the three-mile walk to school seem unbearable. That all changed in 1977 when the World Food Program (WFP) introduced a school meal programme in his area that provided students with a free school lunch every day. These lunches gave him the energy to focus on his studies, and to not only walk, but run the three miles between school and home.

Read the full article at: https://www.borgenmagazine.com/paul-tergat-school-aid-olympic-winner/

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