DUSHANBE, November 30, 2015, Asia-Plus — The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) celebrated the launch of its School Feeding Recipe Book that aims at promoting a healthy and varied diet for schoolchildren, based on products widely available locally and dishes that are common in Tajikistan.
According to WFP Tajikistan, the book is a lively and useful addition to Tajikistan’s national school feeding program that has been running for the past 15 years with the support of the World Food Programme, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and its technical partner Social and Industrial Food Service Institute (SIFI). The program currently provides 360,000 primary schoolchildren with a daily hot meal in 2,000 rural schools across the country, with financial support from the Russian Federation.
“The book celebrates the wonderful local produce and inspires school kitchens cooks to prepare a variety of healthy dishes,” said WFP Country Director in Tajikistan Nicolas Oberlin. “As a famous cook once said, you learn to cook so that you do not become a slave of the recipes. You take what is available and know what to make from it.”
Tajikistan’s First Deputy Minister of Health and Social Protection, leading the governmental Coordination Committee for School Feeding, the Deputy Minister of Education, the Deputy Head of the International Financial Relations Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (the main donor to the School Feeding), and the President of SIFI attended the event.
The School Feeding Recipe Book will be made available free of charge to over 2,000 rural schools and public libraries in February 2016.
