Local farmers in Africa to benefit from school meal programmes

Local farmers in Africa to benefit from school meal programmes. New Imperial-led project aims to support farmers to provide healthy food for children - %0A " - Imperial College London News Release For Immediate Release - Thursday 15 October 2009 A new project that aims to help local farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and to provide healthy school meals for local children launches today. The project, run by the Partnership for Child Development at Imperial College London, is supported in part by a $12 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project will help governments to run school meal programmes using locally- sourced food, providing regular orders and a reliable income for local farmers. While many countries in sub-Saharan Africa already have school meal programmes in place, these programmes are traditionally run by international aid agencies, mostly using imported food. The new initiative will work in conjunction with education, health and agricultural sectors, social workers and international development partners, such as the World Bank and the World Food Programme. Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of whom are women, can often find it difficult to earn enough money to feed their families.