For girls, hot lunch brings success in school
by Donna Polydoros
The Rotarian -- October 2010
I n Chinandega, Nicaragua, students receive a hot lunch every school day because of the work of 17 Rotary districts.
“Many of the children were growing up in the city dump,” says Kim Towar, governor of District 6400 (Ontario, Canada; Michigan, USA), who took this photo in March.
According to the United Nations World Food Programme, 20 percent of Nicaraguan children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition; in some of the country’s poorest areas, that statistic rises to 50 percent. The World Food Programme has credited school lunch programs such as the one in Chinandega with increasing – and in some cases doubling – enrollment, particularly for girls.
World Food Day is 16 October. Learn more.
60 Percentage of
hunger-related deaths
among children under five in developing
countries |
25 Percentage of
children in
developing countries who are
underweight |
23 million Number of
children fed
by the
World Food Programme in 2008 |
1979 Year the UN Food
and Agriculture
Organization established
World Food Day |