![Students eat their school lunch in Rwanda. Photo courtesy of WFP.](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2023/11/foodrwanda-629x420.jpg)
ROME, Nov 6 (IPS) – Of the many things you might associate with a modern teenager, a passion for wholegrain food is probably not the first that comes to mind. However, an innovative school meals project in Rwanda has young people singing its praises.
“Eating whole corn makes our body strong and healthy,” says Julienne, a 15-year-old student at Kibirizi primary school in the Nyamagabe district in the south of the country.
“It is very tasty and nutritious.”
Julienne is one of thousands of Rwandan students receiving school meals as part of a UN World Food Program (WFP) project to replace fortified refined maize flour with a fortified whole wheat version.
The enriched whole wheat flour is used to make ‘kaunga’, a kind of stiff porridge served in schools with beans and vegetables.
Integrating whole grains into school meals is an exciting trial for the WFP, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 for its efforts to provide food assistance in conflict zones and to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war.
Foods are usually fortified to reduce micronutrient deficiencies in the people who eat them by adding vitamins and minerals to the refined versions of staple grains.
The enrichment of whole wheat flour, in which almost all the grain remains in the processed product, is largely unknown territory so far.
But it is potentially a promising way to increase micronutrient levels while maintaining the health benefits of whole grains, which contain more protein, fiber and micronutrients than refined foods.
Whole grain foods also have a cost advantage over refined versions because a higher yield is extracted from the raw materials.
So getting people to taste whole grains is a good way to increase nutrition and food security.
The WFP project in Rwanda, launched in 2021 in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, is doing just that. The Rockefeller Foundation has also enlisted the help of a local partner, Vanguard Economics, to support the project.
The WFP Country Office has reported a major shift in student preferences thanks to the program, with 97% saying they preferred the wholegrain version to the refined equivalent because they liked the rich taste.
It also led to parents asking where they could buy the product in the market.
“The more nutritious food children eat, the more active they are, and they also perform better in school,” says Faustin, Julienne’s father.
“I love the taste of the whole corn and would like to add it to the food we eat at home so that Julienne’s siblings can enjoy it too.”
The WFP purchases the enriched whole grain cornmeal from the same miller from which it sources the enriched refined cornmeal.
“Before the pilot project, fortified cornmeal, purchased from a local supplier, was already a staple of school lunches, along with fortified rice, fresh vegetables from school gardens, beans, fortified oil and iodized salt,” said WFP’s Tiina Honkanen. .
“Together with the Rockefeller Foundation, we saw that if we could work with the WFP supplier’s existing miller to enrich the whole-grain cornmeal instead of the refined flour, we could further increase the nutritional value of school lunches, maximizing the benefits of would combine both enrichment and enrichment. and whole wheat, without having to change the school meal.
“We did not try to introduce a completely new product, but focused on a food that was already eaten.”
The project also helps the local economy. WFP supports smallholder farmers to improve their quality and yields and connects them to viable markets to sell their supply. That is the case for a number of WFP-supported corn farmers, who sell their corn to the WFP supplier miller who produces the fortified whole grain cornmeal.
“In the past, recruiting buyers was not so smooth. What excites me most is knowing that WFP is buying meals to distribute at school,” said Immaculée, a farmer from Nyaruguru district in Rwanda.
“It feels good to know that your products are reaching children in your own community.”
Beyond the success of the project itself, what is especially worth noting is that it could be a model that could be replicated elsewhere. In fact, 180,000 schoolchildren in Burundi and another 60,000 in Kenya now enjoy fortified maize flour, with exciting scale-up prospects in all three countries.
“The pilot has shown that the replacement (of refined foods with whole grain varieties) can be feasible, budget neutral and well accepted by students and the school community,” said Honkanen.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service