The United Nations World Food Programme announced they have received an $8 million grant from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for WFP’s homegrown school meals program in Haiti.
The initiative — a collaboration between the Church, WFP and World Food Program USA — will provide critical nutrition to children in vulnerable areas, explained news releases from World Food Program USA and the Church.
“As followers of Jesus Christ, we strive to care for those in need as He would,” said Blaine R. Maxfield, managing director of the Church’s Welfare and Self-Reliance Services. “These efforts in Haiti will help ensure that children have access to the nutrition they need to focus on their education, while at the same time strengthening communities by sourcing meals locally.”
Half of the population in Haiti is struggling to find enough to eat, reported the WFP, giving the Caribbean nation one of the highest proportions of acute food insecurity worldwide.
The news release said that in the upcoming 2024-2025 school year, WFP is planning to provide school meals to nearly 500,000 students, 70% of which will be made entirely with Haitian-grown ingredients purchased from local farmers.
These homegrown school meals will provide nutrition to children, allowing them to stay in school, while also supporting local smallholder farmers — thus strengthening local economies and promoting the program’s sustainability.
Barron Segar, World Food Program USA president and CEO, said this contribution builds on more than a decade of working with the Church.
“The Church continues to serve as an essential collaborator, supporting WFP’s global operations during emergencies, while simultaneously stepping up to build community resilience,” Segar said. “In addition to supporting work on the ground in Haiti, we are grateful for the Church’s generosity in helping us serve thousands of people in other countries around the world this year, as we combat the world’s global hunger crisis.”
The organizations celebrated a decade of collaboration by announcing a contribution of $2 million from the Church to help fund an emergency response hub in the Caribbean.
So far just this year, the Church has supported WFP giving food assistance in multiple countries, said the news release. This included delivering emergency food in Ukraine and Nigeria, feeding schoolchildren and promoting proper nutrition for mothers and babies in Chad, Ecuador, Cuba, Guinea, Honduras and Peru.
And the Church gave $32 million to the World Food Programme to help provide food and critical assistance to 1.6 million people in nine countries in September 2022. Additionally, WFP has used Church funds to provide food and other critical assistance to provide humanitarian aid to the world’s most vulnerable people, including mothers and young children, in 46 countries.
