School Meal Coalition

Why in news?

• U.N. launches School Meal Coalition to provide meals for global needy. Recently five U.N. agencies - WHO, World Food Program (WFP), UNESCO, UNICEF, and FAO- have pitched their support to the coalition in a joint declaration.

About School Meal Coalition:

• The School Meal Coalition, which will be led by France and Finland, will support governments and their partners to improve the quality of school meals and strengthen school meal systems globally.
• More than 50 U.N. agencies and organizations have joined forces with over 60 world governments to bring back the school meal program for over 388 million primary school students who had been receiving daily lunches pre-pandemic.
• The coalition will also be pushing to make school meals available to the 73 million youngsters that were not getting them before COVID-19 began in 2020.
• The coalition also committed to “smart” school meals programmes that combine regular meals in school with complementary health and nutrition interventions for children’s growth and learning.
• The long-term goal of the coalition will be to ensure that every child in need will receive nutritional school meals by 2030.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following statements regarding ‘School Meal Coalition’:

1. World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are partners in this coalition.

2. The long-term goal of the coalition will be to ensure that every child in need will receive nutritional school meals by 2030.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer