Expanding Homegrown School Meals in Haiti

Summary

In 2024, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) USA, in partnership with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, committed to help transition school meal programs in Haiti to a proven model that will provide locally sourced food to children while sustainably boosting local economies. WFP will work with local governments and implementing partners to transition current school feeding programs to a Homegrown School Feeding Program (HGSF) , which utilizes goods, except oil, from local smallholder farmers to feed schoolchildren. With Haiti facing critical humanitarian needs, such as food insecurity, investing in projects like HGSF is crucial. This program not only addresses immediate food needs but also promotes the development of resilient local food systems and combats child malnutrition. This strategic shift in school feeding programs aligns with the broader goal of achieving long-term development in Haiti while responding to urgent humanitarian challenges.

Approach

The World Food Programme (WFP) aims to assist 59,095 children in Haiti’s Artibonite and Centre departments by providing school meals sourced from 6,000 local smallholder farmers. Collaborating with local NGOs and implementing partners, WFP’s home-grown school feeding program involves close cooperation with the Bureau de Nutrition et de Développement (BND) and several government entities, including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, and various departmental and district educational and agricultural offices.
With the financial support of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church) to WFP USA, WFP coordinates with a wide array of partners and UN agencies through the Education and Food Security Clusters to ensure alignment and prevent duplication of efforts. WFP Haiti benefits from a well-established logistics network and a strong field presence, ensuring effective procurement and distribution of food commodities. They guarantee that storage and transportation facilities meet the program’s needs for timely and safe delivery to beneficiaries.

To manage potential risks, WFP will continuously monitor the security situation in Haiti. If security deteriorates, additional measures, such as convoys, escorts, and coastal transport, will be implemented to ensure the safe delivery of food.

Action Plan

WFP aims to assist a total of 59,095 children through the provision of school meals based on local products. WFP will work closely with participating smallholder farmers and producers to strengthen local food systems and marketing capacities to meet the programmatic goal of providing each participating child with one daily nutritious meal based on local products (for an average of 135 days from the start of the school year) .

While the school feeding activities will only be implemented for one school year (September 2024 – July 2025) , WFP proposes a total duration of the project of 24 months to allow sufficient time for the purchase of food ahead of the start of the school year, implementation and monitoring of capacity-strengthening activities with smallholder farmers. To adhere to the proposed September 2024 start date, WFP has identified participating schools, made plans for food purchases and dispatches and has laid the foundation for M&E implementation.

School feeding activities will be implemented for one academic year with the capacity building of participating smallholder farmers and producers’ organizations (OPAs) and the development of action plans focused on strengthening existing local food systems scheduled to be carried out for the entirety of the program (September 2024 – August 2026) .

For the school feeding component of this program, there will be no M&E schedule post school year (July 2025 – August 2026) as the school feeding component of the project will have wrapped up. However, M&E activities will take place for the other activities of this project.

The timeline for the proposed programmatic activities may change if funding is delayed or if the security situation in Haiti shifts, resulting in newly identified pressing emergency needs.

Background

The complex social, economic and political context in Haiti continues to severely threaten food security and economic development. Escalating armed group violence has led to widespread displacement, hindering access, disrupting markets and economic activities. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis published in March 2024, Haiti is facing its highest levels of food insecurity on record, with 5 million people—half of the population—facing acute food insecurity. This is the highest it has been since the 2010 earthquake, over a decade ago. Price rises continue to be a flashpoint in Haiti. Food prices have more than tripled over the past five years, eroding people’s purchasing power, while the economy has contracted for five consecutive years. The latest inflation rate stands at 20.9% as of January 2024 and compared to January 2023, at which point it stood at around 49%. According to the World Bank, Haiti is among the ten countries most affected by food price inflation in the world: eight out of ten Haitians are currently reducing the size and/or number of meals to cope.[1]
With the complex crisis, the nutritional status of children continues to deteriorate. According to the 2023 SMART Survey, the prevalence of combined acute malnutrition increased from 6.8% in 2020 to 7.2% in 2023. The number of children at risk of experiencing severe acute malnutrition has increased by 30% compared to last year and reached 115,000 children.[2]

[1] World Food Programme, “2023 Haiti Country Report,” accessed May 30, 2024. Available at: WFP Haiti Country Report 2023
[2] World Food Programme, “2023 Haiti Country Report,” accessed May 30, 2024. Available at: WFP Haiti Country Report 2023

Progress Update

Partnership Opportunities

To reach the commitment goals, WFP USA and WFP are looking for a wide array of additional partners across governments, private sector, civil society and communities to join this commitment to accelerate the movement for home grown school feeding., The joint commitment from WFP, WFP USA, and the Church will provide financial resources, program implementation, media support, as well as topic expertise.