Japan supports nearly 18,000 students through WFP’s school meals programme in Haiti

Haiti is currently grappling with an unprecedented food crisis, with 5.4 million people, including 2.3 million children, facing acute hunger. With food costs rising and household purchasing power declining, urgent action is needed to prevent ever greater numbers of people from sliding into food insecurity. 

Thanks to this generous contribution from the people of Japan, WFP will continue to expand its home-grown school meals programme, a cornerstone of Haiti’s social safety net. By increasingly relying on locally purchased food, this programme simultaneously supports smallholder farmers through training, supplies, and tools. This approach not only benefits school children but also producers, thereby strengthening the local food system and local economies.

The programme is also contributing to girls’ education, as meals are an incentive to keep them at school. More than half of all children receiving school meals are girls.

“Japan’s continued commitment to Haiti’s development is invaluable. Their contribution enables WFP to sustain vital school meal programmes, reaching some of the most vulnerable children in the country and offering them hope for a better future,” said Wanja Kaaria, WFP Country Director in Haiti. “This partnership not only addresses immediate food needs but also supports long-term development, helping smallholder farmers produce more, improve quality and sell their products.”

WFP’s school meal programme has proven to be an effective strategy for tackling hunger, while fostering educational advancement. Students who receive meals through this programme exhibit higher school attendance, improved academic performance, and increased progression to the next grade. In addition, these programmes help reduce child malnutrition, which can have severe consequences on physical, cognitive, and emotional development.

The contribution from Japan will also fund complementary activities such as training school kitchen staff on health and hygiene practices to ensure safe meal preparation. This supplementary training will equip the cooks- primarily women- with valuable skills to better care for themselves and their families, thus reducing risks related to illnesses. As part of the programme, these cooks will also receive remuneration for their invaluable work, helping them achieve financial autonomy. 

“Japan is deeply concerned about food insecurity in Haiti reaching record levels while armed group violence escalates,” said Nishiuchi Kazuhiko, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Haiti. “This contribution through WFP’s school meals activities is to help make schools healthy and safe places to learn for the children, while boosting local agricultural production under these difficult circumstances.”

As a longstanding partner of WFP, Japan has consistently supported food assistance and emergency response activities in Haiti, providing critical support to the most vulnerable populations at risk of food insecurity. In addition, Japan has played a key role in supporting the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), helping ensure the safe transport of humanitarians to the country’s most hard-to-reach areas. 

Since the marked deterioration of the situation in Haiti in January 2024, Japan has generously provided food assistance to almost 48,000 Haitians. Additionally, it supported more than 19,000 people through voucher transfers, enabling them to purchase food from local businesses and retailers.  This initiative not only helped meet immediate nutritional needs but also directly boosted the local economy, aligning with WFP’s broader localization efforts in Haiti.

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

Follow us on Twitter @WFP_Haiti @wfp_media