WFP hails gov't contribution to school feeding programme

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday said it welcomed the Kenyan government's contribution, worth US $2.9 million, towards its school feeding programme in the country. In a statement, WFP said the government had committed 13,500 mt of maize to provide free school lunches to one million vulnerable Kenyan children in the country's arid and semi-arid areas. "This contribution again demonstrates the government of Kenya's strong commitment to school feeding," WFP's Country Director for Kenya Tesema Negash said in the statement. "It enables the Ministry of Education and WFP to cover the programme's maize needs for the first term of 2004." The agency, however, warned that the programme was "still desperately short of funding" for much of 2004. Last month, WFP warned that its school feeding programme was facing funding difficulties, which could force it to scale down the operation in the country, with devastating consequences for the 1.1 million schoolchildren currently benefiting from the programme. So far, it said, only the Kenyan government contribution had been received, out of US $15 million needed in order to maintain the programme at its current level. "The programme is still desperately short of funding for the rest of the year," the statement said. "This is the only maize that has been pledged for 2004. If we cannot continue to offer free school meals, a key incentive to attend school, for so many children, hundreds of thousands will drop out."