School meals in Tigray are a lifeline. Why are so few offering them?

Abraha Bahlbi lays an enormous paper ledger over bags of ready-to-eat Famix blended food in the storeroom at Ara Primary School in southeastern Tigray, Ethiopia. The Mary’s Meals International, or MMI, school feeding coordinator points to the columns and rows, and explains how cooks measure exactly 100 grams a day of the nutrition-fortified porridge for each student. The daily total distributed is deducted from the amount in stock, and the new balance used to calculate next month’s food delivery. But what Bahlbi points to most furtively is the column showing school attendance. MMI began a school feeding program at Ara in March this year. By May, enrollment jumped from 380 to 453 children. “The daily attendance rate is about 98%,” he said. “It is a sign of the high need and importance the meal is playing that the children are coming every single day.” About 57% of Tigray’s school population has dropped out of school as a result of conflict and drought, according to Tigray’s Education Bureau. On a visit to the region, Devex learned that school-based feeding is a vital and cheap solution to get children back into classrooms and tackle hunger. But only a handful of organizations are responding. With levels of need this critically high, why are so few involved? Why is school feeding so important? The low attendance figures follow three years of school closures:First, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then a two-year war between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in 2020 that led to an estimated 600,000 deaths and 2.5 million internally displaced people. The region has struggled to recover ever since the two sides signed a peace agreement in November 2022, not only because of the extent of damage to infrastructure — according to Tigray’s Education Bureau, government forces damaged or destroyed more than 75% of the region’s schools — but also because of drought. Six years of failed rains have propelled the mainly agricultural population toward “crisis” and “emergency” food shortage levels, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. It states the region is vulnerable to experiencing more extreme outcomes if humanitarian food assistance and social support substantially decline, or are disrupted for an extended period, before this year’s hoped-for harvest in October. In his office in Tigray’s capital Mekelle, Tigray Education Bureau head Kiros Guesh told Devex there are four main reasons why children are absent from school: The destruction of schools and equipment; the loss of teaching staff, with 15,000 unaccounted for since the war; the impact of trauma on children and teachers; and hunger. According to a bureau assessment, in March alone nearly 26,000 children dropped out of school because they lacked access to food. It estimates another 625 schools — 25% of the region’s total — are on the verge of closure for the same reason. “Even those children who are attending school only have the energy to sit,” said Guesh. “They attend one or two classes, then they leave. Some of them sleep in their classrooms.” Guesh’s priority is to secure partnerships with foreign donors to deliver school feeding programs, or SFPs, to all 2.4 million pupils in Tigray. A briefing provided by the bureau said it is facing “significant challenges in implementing the SFP due to inadequate funding and inconsistent support from partners.” Ethiopia’s federal government — until recently the region’s enemy on the battlefield — is not providing any SFP support. Although it delivered school feeding to more than 6 million children in 2022-23 in the country, its main focus has been the regions of Oromia and Addis Ababa. Who is responding to the need? Currently about 150,600 children in Tigray receive school meals — just over 6% of the total student population, according to the bureau. MMI is the largest provider, reaching 114,600 students every school day. The World Food Programme feeds 27,000, while the European Union, the Luminos Fund, and local communities reach 6,000, 2,000, and 1,000 students, respectively. “It’s not really enough,” WFP Ethiopia communications lead Claire Nevill told Devex by phone from Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa. “We know there’s been an increase in school enrollment in the target schools of approximately 30%, which is huge. It shows that critical role school meals can play in supporting families to send their children to school.” The agency delivers food in Tigray jointly with UNICEF and Plan International using EU funding. These meals were paused temporarily from January to April this year. Nevill would not comment on the reasons why. Supply chains in the region are operating well since the conflict ended, Neville said, and the organization has warehouses to store food. However, while WFP has secured funding for the current target, finding extra finances to reach more schools is “a huge problem.” The other challenge is the desperate demand for food in other parts of Ethiopia. The Amhara region is still experiencing conflict. WFP provides school meals to 119,592 children there, despite the fact that fuel for WFP trucks is largely unavailable. “We have a much bigger school feeding program there because of how high malnutrition rates have been for a long time,” Neville said. Of these, 27,000 are EU-funded, while the government of Finland and German KFW bank finance the remainder. The Afar region faces similar food insecurity as Tigray. WFP feeds 7,300 children at schools there with EU funding, and 89,000 with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the McGovern-Dole partnership, which also provide funds for WFP to reach 73,439 children in the Oromia region. In addition, WFP is trying to supply food assistance to 2.1 million of the most vulnerable people — not just school children — across Ethiopia. “For relief, humanitarian assistance and refugee assistance, we’re really in the red and highly concerned about our pipeline,” warned Nevill. The importance of local partnership MMI has had a school food program in Tigray since 2017 alongside local partner and religious order Daughters of Charity, or DOC. Before the war, MMI fed 24,000 children in 36 schools. Since last year, it has ramped up its efforts, now reaching 114,000 at 223 schools. The charity’s founder and CEO Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow told Devex the partnership is fundamental to its work. “It is through them we reach those in greatest need,” he said. “Their local understanding, logistics, and operational infrastructure enable us to feed where we are most needed.” During COVID-19, when schools were closed, the charity continued supporting students by distributing take-home rations. When the war broke out, on DOC’s request, food stored in a warehouse for schools was diverted to feed 30,000 internally displaced people in camps. MacFarlane-Barrow said the continuity of this relationship meant that as schools reopened again after the war, the organization was able to adapt and expand rapidly. MMI’s model depends on handing ownership of the program to local communities. Just beside the storeroom at Ara Primary School, the volunteer cooks preparing the porridge over open fires are mothers of the school children. Although MMI monitors stock levels, community members are responsible for ensuring food is safely stored. One school even appoints a guard to sleep outside the door overnight. “The reason I believe our model works, and they’re so willing to volunteer, is because they believe in this even more than we do,” said MacFarlane-Barrow. In normal circumstances, school food would be sourced locally. But because of the drought in Tigray, DOC organized for the porridge to be delivered from elsewhere in Ethiopia. “Our preference is to buy locally grown food whenever possible,” said MacFarlane-Barrow. “In time, the running of these programs, and our need to purchase from local farmers, can help stimulate and aid the recovery of agriculture here — another key in breaking this cycle of hunger.” The average cost of feeding a child for a whole year under MMI’s model is just $24.50. Almost all of the charity’s finances come from voluntary income — 95% in 2022. As a result, MMI plans to continue feeding in Tigray and expand in the future, if it can sustain its income. But MacFarlane-Barrow said the lack of attention paid by the world to the crisis in Tigray makes it difficult to raise funds. How are the big agencies tackling Ethiopia’s food crisis? USAID is the largest bilateral donor of humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, but it does not currently support any SFPs. It has provided more than 55% of the total funding that has been received by the Ethiopian Humanitarian Response Plan as of June 11, a USAID spokesperson told Devex over email — a total of $243 million of aid in the 2024 fiscal year. Nevertheless, the plan faces significant funding shortfalls, having received about just 13% of the $3.24 billion required for the year. To address acute food insecurity, the government agency focuses on emergency food assistance, including providing U.S.-sourced peas, vegetable oil, and wheat, and offering cash transfers to food-insecure households. It partners with WFP to reach people across the country. But last year, Tigray’s interim government’s commissioner for disaster risk management, Gebrehiwet Gebrezgabher, claimed more than 1,400 people had starved to death in the region after USAID and WFP halted food aid deliveries for nine months. USAID took the action after it found evidence of “widespread and systematic food aid diversion across the country.” “The decision to pause food assistance in Ethiopia was wrenching, and a measure of last resort,” the spokesperson said. Since restarting assistance, the agency has introduced new measures to strengthen oversight of its aid distribution. WFP’s Nevill told Devex that bags of food are tagged and carry a unique code so they can be traced. Trucks are tracked using GPS systems. WFP and USAID have introduced more community feedback mechanisms, including helplines in different languages and face-to-face help desks at food distribution points. From January to June 2024, WFP received 29,885 reports through these mechanisms — a 48% increase on the previous six-month period. It has also launched a digital register of beneficiaries, to better store data about the most vulnerable households. Nevill stressed that during the pause, WFP’s school food program did not stop. However, while in Tigray, Devex saw evidence that not all food aid reaches its intended destination. On a highway outside Mekelle, we passed two overturned trucks that had spilled large cargos of USAID-branded bags. They appeared to be sacks of wheat. After lying on the ground for at least two days, local people began to carry them away. “We are unable to comment on the details of an on-going open incident,” said the USAID spokesperson. “USAID takes program irregularity incidents seriously.” Catholic Relief Services, or CRS, is another USAID partner. It leads a Joint Emergency Operation, or JEOP, consortium to deliver humanitarian food assistance across Ethiopia. In Tigray, this reaches more than 1.4 million people, but does not include school food programs. Chief of Party for the Ethiopia JEOP Shane Lennon told Devex over email that with support from the regional government, transportation carrying humanitarian aid in Tigray has been prioritized. Despite occasional fuel shortages and some poor road conditions, the organization was reaching people “on time.” However, Lennon called on the U.S. government to take a lead in providing foreign assistance and address rising development and humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and the broader Horn of Africa. Specifically, she said CRS opposed plans in the new U.S. farm bill that could negatively impact the Food for Peace program. “We are concerned about increasing the amount of Food for Peace funding used to purchase U.S. food aid and pay for ocean freight, as this will likely reduce the number of people reached by 2.3 million,” she said. “Programs must adapt to local market conditions and empower participating communities toward recovery and self-reliance.” Back at Ara school, English teacher Wahit Mekoneni is taking a break in her office. Opposite her door, which opens onto the barren, rocky school grounds, one school building is off-limits. Part of it collapsed when a shell landed In the playground during the war. Crowds of children chat loudly nearby, as they eat their plates of hot food. “There is a big difference at school now,” says Mekoneni watching them. “The children were talking about hunger every day. But now they are following in lessons — they are active and respond to my questions.” Editor's note: Mary’s Meals International facilitated Devex’s travel and logistics for this reporting. Devex retains full editorial independence and control of the content.