“The Program which is a direct in-kind transfer directly benefits students in three ways - children have access to healthy wholesome meals; academic performance usually improves as they can concentrate on class and lastly it encourages healthy eating habits.

“One healthy meal a day provided through the Program can mean all the difference in educational and health outcomes, increases in enrolment rates, reduced absenteeism and improving food security at the household level.

"Preliminary results from the review indicate for example that in Antigua and Barbuda   over one year of school feeding is estimated to produce over XCD $3 million in increased productivity due to better education and health.

“Dominica’s School Feeding Programme, is now seeing children learn how to grow what they eat and to eat what they grow in School Gardens which encourages healthy eating habits at a young formative age” said Dr. Radix.