By Ellie Hoffman
Photo credits, from left to right: UNICEF State of Palestine, United Nations in Palestine, the Knowledge Hub on Sustainable Development Goal 4
Welcome back! In the previous post, I explored the intersection of food and education in the context of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This post will build upon that theme by digging deeper into what food and education change efforts look like with the Nutrition Friendly Schools Initiative in Palestine.
Food and Education
Research has shown that education has a powerful impact on children’s health and nutrition, and vice versa. According to the World Health Organization, child and adolescent nutrition “maximizes intellectual potential and school performance,” while education “secures the health of future generations,” especially through girls’ nutrition (World Health Organization, n.d.). Education provides a framework through which children can learn about healthy eating and sustainability; that framework is powered by free hot meals and health interventions that aim to end malnutrition, stunting, and wasting. Moreover, schools provide a place for parents and community members to engage on health-related issues.
With such profound impacts, it’s no wonder so many organizations worldwide have engaged in school feeding programs and nutrition education. UNICEF, in particular, has partnered with other NGOs to provide region-specific feeding and educational programs for children in areas affected by war, natural disasters, and famine.
UNICEF and the Nutrition Friendly Schools Initiative
In 2018, UNICEF launched the Nutrition Friendly Schools Initiative (NFSI), a bundle of interventions aimed at revising school nutrition policies, increasing community awareness and capacity-building, implementing nutrition and health-based curricula, and supporting food-secure school environments (Bajraktarevic, 2021). The initiative was designed to simultaneously foster education and health via policy, communication, and guidelines for schools, teachers, and families. Its goals included community food security, healthy lifestyles, and advocacy through activities such as free meals, sustainable gardening, and workshops on nutrition. In 2018, Palestine was selected as one of six countries to pilot NFSI, following evidence that high percentages of Palestinian youth were suffering from anemia (UNICEF, 2021).
Piloting in Palestine
Palestine is a land torn by the ebbs and flows of a decades-long conflict with Israel. In recent years, the conflict has escalated through increasingly frequent violent clashes, resulting in an unstable, resource-strapped environment where citizens regularly shelter from bombings inside the local schools (Center for Preventative Action, 2023; Jalbout et al, 2014). COVID-19 further destabilized the region with chaotic outbreaks, closures, and destroyed supply routes that prevented treatment and vaccines from reaching many parts of Gaza and the West Bank (Awad, 2021; ANERA, 2022).
Into this setting, enter more than 1.3 million school children, all in need of the basic services every child has the right to: food and education. Yet, according to Jalbout et al, “Poverty and lack of opportunity resulting from the [Israeli] blockade…have devastating impacts on the lives of children and youth and their ability and desire to study” (2014).
Any program that aims to influence food through education or education through food faces challenges, but those challenges are especially prominent in the Palestinian context. Because Palestine was the first country to implement NFSI, many of the initiative’s guidelines were written or adapted with the Palestinian situation in mind. Special attention was given to the importance of girls’ nutrition, interventions appropriate for anemia, and the language of the curriculum. From 2018 through the COVID-19 pandemic, when the program pivoted to a hybrid environment, NFSI delivered quality nutrition and education to primary and secondary school children throughout the region. By September 2021, NFSI had reached nearly 30,000 children, 78% of them girls. In addition to supporting school feeding and curriculum implementation, the initiative helped the State of Palestine develop a national nutrition protocol and clear procedures for screening and treatment of school-aged children (Bajraktarevic et al).
Looking Forward
NFSI, while successful, ultimately ended in 2021, and with its closure comes questions about what’s next. The literature addressing the program’s impacts also leaves something to be desired: How might these nutrition interventions and curricula impact long-term family health and education? How have recent conflicts affected the national health protocol and school food security? How might administrators design a new program to continue promoting community nutrition through culturally sensitive content?
It’s also difficult to say what’s next for the Palestinian authority. Where agriculture, schools, and shelters are destroyed in ongoing violence, nothing remains stable for long. In this environment, providing children with a sustainable, healthy diet and quality education is no small task. Yet these are the very things children need most in order to grow into skilled individuals with the knowledge and competencies to innovate, create, and build a new reality. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Works Cited
ANERA. (2022, February 17). COVID-19 in Palestine. https://www.anera.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Anera-on-the-ground-report-COVID-Palestine-sprds.pdf
Awad, O. (2021, January 11). Education in COVID-19: From disruption to recovery. Palestine Economy Portal. Retrieved March 2, 2023 from https://www.palestineeconomy.ps/en/Article/17670/Education-in-COVID-19-From-disruption-to-recovery
Bajraktarevic, S.; Qadi, K.; Badwan, A.; Awadallah, Y.; & Abueita, R. (2021). Improving the nutritional well-being of school-age children through the Nutrition-Friendly Schools Initiative (NFSI) in the State of Palestine. Emergency Nutrition Network. https://www.ennonline.net/fex/66/nutritionalwellbeingschoolagechildren
Center for Preventative Action. (2023, January 17). Israeli Palestinian Conflict. Council on Foreign Relations Global Conflict Tracker. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict
Jalbout, M.; Dryden-Peterson, S.; & Watkins, K. (2014, August 4). The Destruction of Gaza’s Schools and the Future of Palestinian Children. Brookings. Retrieved March 2, 2023 from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2014/08/04/the-destruction-of-gazas-schools-and-the-future-of-palestinian-children/
World Health Organization. (n.d.) Nutrition-Friendly Schools Initiative. https://apps.who.int/nutrition/topics/NFSI_Briefing_presentation.pdf?ua=1
UNICEF. (2021, September 28). Schools and Nutrition – better results for children. Retrieved March 2, 2023 from https://www.unicef.org/sop/stories/schools-and-nutrition-better-results-children
