The McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (FFE program) helps support education, child development, and food security for some of the world's poorest children. It provides for donations of U.S. agricultural products, as well as financial and technical assistance, for school feeding and maternal and child nutrition projects in low-income, food-deficit countries that are committed to universal education.

The fundamental goal of the FFE program, successor to the pilot Global Food for Education Program, is to use food as an incentive to improve education and nutrition. The key objectives of the FFE program are to reduce hunger and improve literacy and primary education, especially for girls. By providing school meals, teacher training, and related support, FFE projects help boost school enrollment and academic performance. The FFE program also provides nutrition programs for pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants, and preschool youngsters to sustain and improve the health and learning capacity of children before they enter school.

The FFE program was authorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 and is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The program is named in honor of Ambassador and former Senator George McGovern and former Senator Robert Dole for their tireless efforts to encourage a global commitment to school feeding and child nutrition.

Reaffirming the U.S. Commitment: Today, an estimated 120 million school-age children around the world are not enrolled in school, in part because of hunger or malnutrition. The majority of these children are girls.

The FFE program reaffirms the U.S. commitment to childhood education and nutrition globally. In fiscal 2005, the FFE program made approximately $91 million available to provide 118,000 tons of food to 3.4 million children in 15 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. These efforts resulted in more children entering schools, improved student performance, and greater parental and community involvement in education. For fiscal 2006, USDA seeks FFE funding of $99 million to assist an additional 2.5 million children. The United States is encouraging other donor countries, foundations, and international organizations to support, sponsor, and participate in similar programs.

How the Program Works: The school feeding and nutrition projects are conducted by nonprofit charitable organizations, cooperatives, and international organizations. USDA invites and carefully reviews proposals for projects. USDA bases its approval on the following criteria:

1. a proposal's quality and potential impact;
    
2. its provision of incentives to help offset cultural barriers that limit education of girls;
    
3. the degree to which it will lessen the need for children to work rather than go to school; and
    
4. the literacy rates, school attendance rates, and expenditures of the recipient country on education.

Organizations conducting FFE projects must develop and initiate plans for sustainability, so that the communities being served under the program can graduate from USDA assistance and continue the sponsored activities on their own or with support from other sources.

The FFE program focuses on countries that meet the poverty criteria established by the World Bank. The national government of the recipient country must be fully committed to achieving the goals of the World Declaration on Education for All and should be taking steps to raise nutritional standards and improve the quality and availability of education.

In addition to donating and shipping agricultural commodities, USDA may also pay transportation, storage, and handling costs within the recipient country, as well as administrative expenses of the participating organizations to enhance program effectiveness.

Additional Information: For more information, contact: Programming Division, Office of Capacity Building and Development, FAS/USDA, Stop 1034, 1400 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20250-1034; tel.: (202) 720-4221; fax: (202) 690-0251.

Information about this program is also available on the FAS Web site: http://www.fas.usda.gov/excredits/foodaid/ffe/ffe.html