Russia to continue interacting with WFP on school catering systems — Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. Russia is going to continue interacting with the World Food Programme (WFP) to help countries develop school catering systems, the Foreign Ministry said this Friday. Russia has gained a lot of experience assisting friendly countries in the sphere of setting up and developing sustainable school catering systems and the WFP has been acting as the principal international partner in this sphere for more than a decade, the Ministry noted. "We intend to proceed with meaningful interaction with the World Food Programme for the purposes of providing aid to countries in need and supporting global food safety," the Ministry said. "Assistance of this kind is much-needed and provides concrete, tangible benefits. Being at the intersection of humanitarian aid and development assistance, the projects have a net positive effect: they become a tool for combating hunger and promoting a healthy diet, as well as increasing the overall level of education and the degree of youths’ competitiveness on the labor market as a consequence," it noted. Russia and the WFP are implementing a series of such projects in different regions of the globe for a total of more than $130 mln, including in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Nicaragua, Cuba, Jordan, Mozambique, Syria, and Asia-Pacific nations, the Foreign Ministry added. Read more