Advocates press MPs to feed Georgia’s children at school

• New data from UNICEF revelas that two thirds of school children in Georgia do not eat during the school day.

• Georgia is one of only a small number of countries globally without a school feeding programme of any sort.

• Georgia’s Education for All Coalition has taken up the issue of food poverty among students and is engaging members of the Georgian parliament.

Georgia has made significant development progress over the last decade, with considerable GNI per capita increases, alongside a simultaneous drop in the poverty rate by over 50% since 2010. 

However, at present, Georgia is one of the few countries who has no school meals program at all and according to UNICEF’s latest Child Wellbeing Report, more than two thirds of Georgia’s children do not consume food during school hours. 

“We all know how much more difficult it is to function if we don’t eat during the day but it’s much worse for children,” said George Chanturia, the Director of the Education for All Coalition of Georgia (EFA).

Being hungry during the school day has both immediate and long term detrimental impacts on children. Hungry children are less able to cope with the challenges of each day and more likely to struggle emotionally. Hunger and malnutrition affect a child's ability to concentrate, to take in and retain new information, and to make good progress in their learning.

To tackle this challenge Georgian Civil Society Organisations, the Education for All Coalition (EFA Georgia) and Centre for Training and Consultancy (CTC) School Lab Program have launched a new initiative to strengthen the advocacy of school meals programs in Georgia. A project that is supported by the Civil Society Engagement Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by East-West Management Institute (EWMI).

Through innovative campaigning the initiative urges the government to initiate a school feeding programme as soon as possible. 

“The lack of a national school meals programme is a worrying source of inequality, with a serious impact on learning. There are significant differences in the quality of education in Georgia with for instance most children in private schools receiving school meals, in comparison to the limited support children in the public system receive.” said Mr Chanturia. 

Irina Khantadze, the Chairperson of the Education for All Coalition (EFA) and the Director at CTC, says that the organisations have made the case for school feeding to the Parliament and the Government requesting they take decisive and immediate action as children and families are suffering.

“I personally urged members of parliament  to consider this issue in their strategy, since they don’t have it there. Moreover, we urged the ministry to act quickly, especially after COVID-19 as it could serve as a major contributor to remediation programs for the learning loss that our students have, ” said Ms. Khantadze.

“We’re working to grow the understanding of Georgia's parliamentarians of the importance of this issue, both for children’s health, wellbeing and educational outcomes.”

“In a recent interview Minister of Education, Giorgi Amilakhvari, former Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee of the Education and Science recognised the issue and whilst warning that a solution couldn’t be implemented overnight, he stated that he is committed to progressing the issue, which has inspired us to continue to build support for school feeding among Georgian members of parliament,” concluded Ms. Khantadze.

Finally, Ms. Khantadze explained that school lunchboxes, whereby the meal is delivered from an external supply, could be utilised in school feeding delivery before the infrastructural challenges are solved, a recommendation made in their 2021 School Feeding in Georgia report. 

EFA Georgia recently joined the School Meals Coalition and is calling on the Georgian Government to join the Coalitione to demonstrate its commitment to ensuring Georgia’s children, especially its most vulnerable, receive a nutritious meal at school.