Bangladesh Inks with WFP to Expand School Feeding Programme

Bangladesh and the World Food Programme (WFP) have inked a contract for the country's primary school pupils' school feeding program to be expanded and improved.

The deal was signed in front of AK Abdul Momen, the foreign minister.

The government of Bangladesh started a school feeding program in 2010, and as of now, free meals are provided to almost 23 lakh pupils in 15,000 primary schools in 104 upazilas.

Under the new agreement, the school feeding programme will be expanded to more than 150 upazilas, raising the number of beneficiaries to 37 lakh students. Besides, fruits, milk, bread, eggs and other nutritious foods will be served instead of fortified biscuits.

According to Momen, the primary school enrollment rate has grown by 14 percent, while the dropout rate has decreased by 7.5 percent as a result of the feeding program.

At a meeting held here on Monday, Bangladesh also joined the School Meals Coalition as its 85th member.

Both the PM's speechwriter, Md Nazrul Islam, and Bangladesh's ambassador to Italy, Md Shameem Ahsan, were present.