• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Sunday, July 20, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

300 Million Children Missing School Meals Due to Virus Closures: WFP

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
03/20/20
in Featured, World
A classroom in Lebanon is sprayed with disinfectant amid the coronavirus outbreak on Feb 2 2020. Photo: AFP

A classroom in Lebanon is sprayed with disinfectant amid the coronavirus outbreak on Feb 2 2020. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Some 300 million children who depend on school meals are missing out due to closures triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the World Food Programm said Friday.

The WFP pointed out that more than 860 million children – roughly half the world’s student population – were having to stay away from schools and universities due to shutdowns aimed at halting the spread of COVID-19.

In addition to missing out on learning, hundreds of thousands of children are now missing free school lunches, the U.N. agency said.

The WFP said nearly nine million children out of the 18 million the organization itself feeds through school meals across 61 countries were no longer receiving them.

The agency said it was looking into alternative ways of providing children out of school with food, including take-home meals.

“Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some 300 million primary school children are now missing out on school meals on which they depend,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in an online briefing from Geneva.

She warned that the number of children deprived of WFP-provided school meals “is set to rise in coming days and weeks.”

“In countries where schools are closed, WFP is evaluating possible alternatives.

“This includes providing take-home rations in lieu of the meals, home delivery of food and provision of cash or vouchers,” she said.

Byrs stressed that without alternative solutions, many children around the world blocked from attending school would otherwise go hungry.

She said the idea of take-home rations would benefit not only children but their families too.

The governments of wealthy countries such as the United States, Britain, France, and Canada have adopted special mechanisms to ensure that their poorest schoolchildren will not go hungry.

But the situation is much more precarious for children living in countries plagued by extreme poverty, armed conflict, and whose health systems are weak or almost non-existent.

“We can shift to online learning, but not online eating. Some solutions are needed,” Carmen Burbano, director of the WFP’s school feeding division, told AFP.


More on the Subject 

Reeling Under US Sanctions, Venezuela Braces for Potentially Devastating COVID-19 Outbreak 

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
Opinion

An Inspired Choice to Lead the CDC

by Edward C. Halperin
June 13, 2023
A woman undergoing COVID test in China
Featured

Soaring Covid Cases Shine Light on China’s Healthcare Gap

by Staff Writer
January 11, 2023
European Medicines Agency
World

EU Watchdog Approves Second Covid Booster for Over 80s

by Staff Writer
April 6, 2022
WHO
World

WHO Urges Rich Countries to Pay Up for Covid Plan

by Staff Writer
February 9, 2022
Mask making
National

US Sets Global Record of Over 1 Mn Daily Covid-19 Cases

by Staff Writer
January 4, 2022
Israel Covid vaccine
World

Israel ‘Leads the Way’ With 4th Covid Jabs for Vulnerable

by Staff Writer
December 31, 2021
Next Post
A Russian soldier on his armoured vehicle watches Syrian rebels during evacuation from Daraa city, on July 15.

Russia in Syria’s Idlib: Why the Kremlin Cares

A soldier looks across the Rio Grande River from Texas into Mexico, where a group of people hang out on the river bank. Photo: Thomas Watkins, AFPA soldier looks across the Rio Grande River from Texas into Mexico, where a group of people hang out on the river bank

US, Mexico to 'Restrict Non-Essential' Border Crossings

Recommended

Lula da Silva

Brazil’s Lula Calls Trump’s Tariff Threat ‘Unacceptable Blackmail’

July 18, 2025
People from Nordic countries participate in the 2025 WorldPride DC parade and celebrate LGBTQ rights in Washington DC, USA, Saturday, June 7, 2025.

Sweden Cuts Red Tape for Changing Legal Gender

July 16, 2025
Ursula von der Leyen

EU Ministers Weigh Response to Latest Trump Tariff Threat

July 14, 2025
UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese

UN Says US Sanctions on Expert Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Must Be Reversed

July 11, 2025
Women in Afghanistan wearing a blue burqa

ICC Seeks Arrest of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women

July 9, 2025
Kenya, Nairobi, 2024-07-16. Protesters in the streets

Nairobi Tense as Kenya Marks Democracy Uprising

July 7, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post