Newly introduced food vouchers enable schools to buy local products and purchase food more regularly. WFP’s initiative – piloted across 145 schools – ensures not only more nutritious food for children, but it also boosts the local economy and agricultural production.
By Maïmouna Cissé, WFP Senegal
Darsalam, a village in the area of Nyassia, is about15 km from Ziguinchor, in southern Senegal. Like many other villages in the Casamance Naturelle, it is still bearing the brunt of its troubled past.
The local school receives about 120 students every year, including 58 girls. Thanks to WFP, the school canteen has been providing the children one hot meal every school day since 2002, helping families keep their children in school.
Up until recently, WFP has been delivering food to the school on a quarterly basis. But a new approach – the use of food vouchers – is being piloted in 145 schools, including in the school of Darsalam. “There are advantages in the introduction of the food vouchers,” says Jean Camara, the school canteen manager. “We have more independence, choice and we can buy the food more regularly. Also, we know where the food comes from as we can buy some locally, and we can ensure that the food has the highest quality.”
The local women – who are playing an important role in the running of the canteen – welcome the change. "We prefer the food vouchers as we can manage our time better. Before, we had to come to school early in the morning to sort out the food, pull out what we needed for that day. Now we can do our chores in the morning before coming to school and as you can see, after preparing the meal, we have time to tend to our peanuts,” says Aissatou Sagna, a member of the school management committee and the president of the canteen committee.
Since 2002, with the support of WFP, the school has been receiving regular supplies of cereal, pulses, oil, iodized salt and flour.
The newly introduced food vouchers enable the school to buy food more regularly (every month), and to buy local fresh products, hence enriching the nutritious value of the school meals.
The introduction of the food vouchers coincides also with the management of the canteen being transferred to the community. "We are pleased that the local community, especially the women, are taking over the management of the canteen. This will also free our time, and enable us to better focus on the teaching aspect,” said the director of the school, Aliou Dramé.
Starting from the next school year, WFP plans to introduce food vouchers across all the WFP-supported schools – 1012 schools - in Senegal. The new initiative will ensure a self-sustainable school feeding programme across the country, boost the local economy and agriculture, and ultimately help children grow healthy and keep them in school.
