A project of the World Food Programme (WFP) to support school feeding is strengthening nutrition and development for children and young people in eastern Cuba by boosting local capacities.

According to a press release from the UN agency, the initiative, funded by the Debt Conversion Programme between Cuba and Spain, aims to bring locally produced food to educational centres and foster direct links with productive forms in each territory.

In its first month of implementation, the project benefited more than 6,700 students and staff from the 74 selected institutions in 19 municipalities in that region of the country, the source specified.

Etienne Labande, WFP representative in Cuba, stated that the project demonstrates how international cooperation can translate into concrete solutions for communities by supporting national efforts and promoting a model of cooperation.

The initiative will be developed over a preliminary period of six months, during which, in coordination with the Ministry of Education, it will support the local purchase of supplies through financial transfers to the territories, with the aim of improving their availability in each centre.

The agency noted that it is expected to benefit more than 12,000 early childhood, primary and special education students, as well as more than 3,000 sector workers, with the participation of 42 productive forms.

Among the priorities is guaranteeing the timely, fresh and safe arrival of supplies to schools, a process that will have technical assistance, monitoring and accountability support from the WFP, it concluded.

With more than six decades of presence in Cuba, the WFP promotes food and nutritional security through the strengthening of agro-ecological resilience, disaster response and support for social protection networks.