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Putting Theory into Practice: Food and Education in Palestine
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
A Recipe for Success?
How primary education impacts global hunger
By Ellie Hoffman
Food for Thought
Every morning, over 720 million children around the world wake up, get dressed, and prepare to go to primary school (Roser, 2021). These children come from vastly different backgrounds, cultures, living situations, and geographies; they get to school by car, truck, bus, bicycle, buggy, or foot. Together, they account for approximately 9% of the world’s population.
Yet while these children may share the experience of primary level schooling, more than 58 million children do not (Roser, 2021). Even for those who attend school, the future is far from certain. War, famine, disease, and economic hardship are just some of the conditions that force children to drop out each year, and those that stay are often too hungry to focus in class.
What can we do?
Education: The Foundation
Like many universal but culturally-dependent concepts, education, its purposes, and its outcomes can be defined in many ways. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have one such definition, stating that education “is fundamental to creating a peaceful and prosperous world…giv[ing] people the knowledge and skills they need to stay healthy, get jobs and foster tolerance” (n.d.). For primary school students, the goal of formal education is to gain the cognitive, academic, and behavioral skills needed to pursue healthy and fulfilling lives. Through the SDGs, the United Nations (n.d.) has committed to “all girls and boys complet[ing] free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education” by 2030.
But hunger is holding them back.
Food: The Catalyst
Food is key to all we do, and while it may vary from culture to culture, we cannot survive or thrive without it. And yet, we live in a world where as much as 30% of the global population lacks reliable access to sufficient nutritious food as a result of poverty, climate change, and unequal resource distribution. That percentage includes hundreds of millions of children who suffer from stunting (arrested growth), wasting (extreme thinness), and malnutrition.
Children who go to school hungry have difficulty focusing; children affected by stunting may even experience early developmental difficulties that prevent them from learning effectively (Watkins, 2022; UNICEF, n.d.). Without food, education cannot happen, because nutrition plays an outsized role in our cognitive abilities, mental concentration, and behavioral development (Healthy Food Choices in Schools, 2019). Without education, children cannot learn better health practices; they cannot improve their quality of life; they cannot fulfill their potential. This silent epidemic has led the United Nations to declare its goal of ending all forms of malnutrition, stunting, and wasting in children under five by the year 2030 (United Nations, n.d.)
Where Food and Education Intersect
More food means better education, but better education also means more food. School feeding gives students the motivation to come to school and the fuel to stay there, but the education itself has just as much of an impact. Better-educated students eventually go on to better-paying jobs and more sustainable practices that influence climate action and future food security. Moreover, quality education teaches students about nutrition, hydration, and treating basic food-related deficiencies and illnesses – knowledge and skills that make a difference in the lives of countless children (Christian et al., 1988). In rural communities where the staple crop is rice and doctors are far and few between, foundational health knowledge can help families identify and accept alternative food sources like wild greens, as well as spot nutritional deficiencies before they become acute (Guatam, 2012).
In addition, according to the United Nations, “1.7 million fewer children would suffer from stunting if all women had completed primary education,” a number that increases to 12.2 million children when women finish secondary schooling (UNESCO, 2014). Why? Girls who complete school tend to marry later and live in better socioeconomic conditions. Education also gives girls the opportunity to learn and apply best practices connected to hygiene, health, and micronutrient consumption.
“All the SDGs Come Down to Education…”
The above quote by activist Malala Yousafzai invokes the power of education to transform, unite, and create a better world. Education does not act in a vacuum; it informs and is informed by many other issues, including hunger and food security. By using food-based solutions to improve learning outcomes, and educational solutions to shape our response to hunger, we can work toward creating a healthier, brighter future.
Works Cited
Christian, P., Abbi, R., Gujral, S., & Gopaldas, T. (1988). The Role of Maternal Literacy and Nutrition Knowledge in Determining Children’s Nutritional Status. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 10(4) https://doi.org/10.1177/156482658801000420
Guatam, K. (2012, September 10). Poverty and Illiteracy Contribute to Acute Malnutrition For Thousands of Nepali Children. Global Press Journal. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://globalpressjournal.com/asia/nepal/poverty-and-illiteracy-contribute-to-acute-malnutrition-for-thousands-of-nepali-children/
Healthy Food Choices in Schools (2019, June 12). 3 Ways Nutrition Influences Student Learning Potential and School Performance. Retrieved March 11, 2023 from https://healthy-food-choices-in-schools.extension.org/3-ways-nutrition-influences-student-learning-potential-and-school-performance/#_edn3
Roser, M. (2021, November 2). Access to basic education: Almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school. Our World in Data. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://ourworldindata.org/children-not-in-school
UNICEF. (n.d.) Nutrition. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.unicef.org/nutrition
UNESCO. (2014). Sustainable Development Begins with Education. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/2275sdbeginswitheducation.pdf
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. (n.d.) 17 Goals to Transform Our World. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/
Watkins, K. (2022, October 19). School Meals Programmes and the Education Crisis. The Education Commision. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://educationcommission.org/updates/school-meals-programmes-and-the-education-crisis/
