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Armenian Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan and Country Director and Representative of the World Food Programme Pascale Micheau familiarized themselves with the School  meals  programme implementation at Masis school  No 2 of Ararat province.

To remind, the WFP established operations in Armenia  in 2010 aimed at providing one meal per day to 50,000 primary school children mainly for the first to four grades.

School meals programme activities target communities in three provinces: Ararat, Vayots Dzor, Syunik financed by the government of Armenia, while in other provinces the donor for the Programme is the Russian Federation.

Armenian Minister of Education and Culture familiarized himself with the programme implementation at the school and highlighted the programme significance in a briefing with reporters.

“Supplying hot meals to children is quite important in terms of their health and development. The Programme should be continued and expand its target children even higher than four grades. Except these three provinces, we consider to involve new provinces annually with the finance of the government. This year we plan to add Tavush, Shirak and Aragatsotn provinces. 129 drams per child are allocated from the budget within the programme, while the rest is provided by international donor companies,” the minister said.

To minister Mkrtchyan, apart from supplying the meal, the programme forms discipline and promotes the culture of sharing the bread.

Minister Mkrtchyan then mentioned the programme is monitored by the Governor’s Offices and the whole procurement procedure is monitored as well.

“The programme is easier to implement in large schools, while in small ones problems arise with regard to finding a space for a kitchen,” Mkrtchyan noted.

Country Director of   theWorld Food Programme Pascale Micheau noted the menu is made based on necessary calories and vitamins needed for the children. “The programme focuses attention to food safety, and samples from the meals are taken on daily basis,” he said.   

School principal at Masis No 2 School Balasan Zeynalyan presented the menu to Panorama.am “Being a cook myself, I prepare meals for children with great pleasure. We have harissa, soups, various pilaffs salads, cheese, and meat in our menu with respective portions for each child.”
Arevik Barseghyan, third grade at school told she likes the meals at school, while her classmate Vahe Hovhannisyan spoke of preferences. “I enjoy every meal and the food we eat differs every day. Most of all I prefer rice pilaff.”