[{"bbox": [195, 153, 1058, 206], "category": "List-item", "text": "foods to the schools stated they produced sufficient quantity for sale as well as home consumption¹²."}, {"bbox": [158, 207, 1059, 367], "category": "List-item", "text": "* A 2019 evaluation also indicated a positive influence on farmers' income and livelihoods, with farmers reporting the advantage of delivering to a nearby school¹³. Before, they had to search for markets in faraway places and faced high communication and transport costs. Grouping in associations has further reduced the cost and strengthened their negotiation power. Several farmers reported having been able to start other income-generating activities, buy transport means, feed the family better and put their children in secondary school."}, {"bbox": [158, 368, 1060, 528], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Based on data from WFP's homegrown school feeding, most targeted farmers are able to sell to the schools soon after harvest, making on average a profit of EUR 220. When the lean season starts, about 50 percent of the farmers would access the market and make an average profit of about EUR 350. At the peak of the lean season (January - March), about 40 percent access the market with a profit of about EUR 440. Thus, a farmer who sells in all three school terms, on average, may earn a profit of about EUR 1000."}, {"bbox": [158, 539, 1059, 776], "category": "Text", "text": "School feeding is one of the most effective safety nets. Particularly when integrated into a national social protection scheme as part of a lifecycle approach, school feeding can contribute to protect from and prevent deepening poverty and promote development. Associating school feeding with other social assistance programmes such as unconditional cash transfers, scholarships and public works provides opportunities to address the multidimensional social and economic vulnerabilities faced by children and their families and helps reinforce the impact of these programmes. In addition to reducing consumption gaps, by providing food transfers school meals improve access to and use of basic services including education, health and nutrition required for the development of long-term sustainable livelihoods."}, {"bbox": [158, 790, 1060, 1029], "category": "Text", "text": "A WFP analysis to estimate the impact on the household of suspension of school meals, as happened due to the COVID-19 school closure, found that for a household with 2-3 school aged children, the value of the one meal provided at school would amount to approximately EUR 4.40 per month. While this value may not seem substantial, an average rural Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket (SMEB) at the time of the analysis was about EUR 47/month (WFP MEB data, April 2020). Therefore, needing an additional EUR 4.40 per month to cover children's meals in the absence of school feeding programmes results in a reduction of total expenditure of approximately nine percent for the poor household. With take-home rations during school closure, Tsolata I helped cushion the effects of COVID on poor households."}, {"bbox": [158, 1041, 1059, 1122], "category": "Text", "text": "Crisis modifiers also prove to be a valuable tool in response to weather-related shocks (Tropical Storm Ana, 2022), allowing for temporary horizontal expansion of school feeding through take-home rations for over 37,000 children, whose schools were damaged by the storm."}, {"bbox": [158, 1133, 1059, 1400], "category": "Text", "text": "WFP's engagement with local communities related to school meals initiatives in Malawi is well documented. Evaluations show that as a result of community outreach and inclusion, community members become engaged participants, ready and willing to contribute firewood, assist financially where necessary and take active roles in the management of the school meals activities. Emerging lessons from the Afikepo/NAPE programme, showed that at school level school meals committees are a good platform for management of the programme and positive examples can be found in supported schools where community members, local leaders and teachers have worked hand in hand to establish productive school environment interventions and have mobilised resources. But it has also been highlighted how the level of engagement is very dependent on individual communities and dynamics and measures that can be put in place to enhance their participation."}, {"bbox": [158, 1411, 1059, 1466], "category": "Text", "text": "Lessons from Afikepo/NAPE highlighted that spreading out targeting with a small number of schools per district increases operational costs and can have negative spill over effects such as"}, {"bbox": [147, 1516, 1082, 1590], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² WFP (2019) Evaluation of the Joint Programme for Girls Education (JPGE) with financial support from the Norwegian Government - July 2014 – October 2017 [Jointly commissioned by WFP, UNICEF, UNFPA and the Malawi Ministry of Education Science and Technology]."}, {"bbox": [148, 1590, 221, 1611], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹³ Ibidem"}, {"bbox": [966, 1681, 1082, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 15 of 26"}]