Bangladesh has signed an agreement with the World Food Programme (WFP) for expanding and improving school feeding programme for the country's primary school students. The agreement was inked in an event attended by Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen. Bangladesh government introduced a school feeding programme in 2010 and now some 23 lakh students of 15,000 primary schools in 104 upazilas are getting free meals. Read: PM Hasina offers Nepal use of Payra port during meeting with Nepalese counterpart in Rome Under the new agreement, the school feeding programme will be expanded to more than 150 upazilas, raising the number of beneficiaries to 37 lakh students. Besides, fruits, milk, bread, eggs and other nutritious foods will be served instead of fortified biscuits. Thanks to the feeding programme, the dropout rate has declined by 7.5 percent and the enrolment rate has increased by 14 percent in the primary schools, said Momen. Read: Bangladesh-Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Room opened at FAO Headquarters  Moreover, Bangladesh has become the 85th member of the School Meals Coalition at an event here on Monday. Bangladesh Ambassador to Italy Md Shameem Ahsan and PM’s speechwriter Md Nazrul Islam were present.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Bangladesh are working together to distribute food rations among nearly 3 million primary school children across Bangladesh, especially those who are missing out on their school meals due to school closures caused by the spread of the Coronavirus.