Information Minister Bah Links School Feeding to Education and Feed Salone
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah, has called for school feeding to be integrated into the country’s broader investments in education, agriculture and human-capital development.
Minister Bah made the call during a high-level event on the margins of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, organised under the theme “School Meals for the Future: Leaders Accelerating Progress.”
The event was co-hosted by the World Food Programme and The Rockefeller Foundation and brought together government leaders, development partners, philanthropists and global content creators to examine how locally produced school meals can improve learning while strengthening food systems.
Speaking on a panel alongside France’s Minister Delegate for International Partnerships, Éléonore Caroit, and youth climate educator Sage Lenier, Bah drew on his personal experience of growing up in Sierra Leone to highlight the connection between hunger and access to education.
“I went to school hungry,” Bah said, recalling the difficulties faced by families who had to make choices between food and other expenses associated with sending children to school.
He said his early advocacy had focused heavily on access to education, but his experience had demonstrated that hunger and education cannot be addressed as separate issues.
“For a child, the questions are simple: Can I get to school? Can I eat? Can I concentrate? Can I dream beyond today?” he said.
Bah linked the issue of school feeding to President Julius Maada Bio’s Free Quality School Education programme, arguing that expanding access to education must also involve ensuring that children are adequately nourished to learn.
“Once we made that bet on education, we also had to bet on feeding children in school,” he said.
The Minister further connected school feeding to the government’s Feed Salone initiative, describing the two programmes as complementary investments in Sierra Leone’s children and productive capacity.
He said Free Quality School Education invests in the knowledge and potential of children, while Feed Salone seeks to increase the country’s capacity to produce food, create jobs and strengthen the economy.
According to Bah, school feeding should therefore be viewed beyond a social welfare programme, given its links to education, agriculture, nutrition, youth employment and local enterprise.
He said Sierra Leone’s experience demonstrates how a locally sourced school meal can simultaneously support a child’s education and contribute to the wider national development agenda.
Concluding his intervention, Bah said Sierra Leone’s approach could be summed up in one national ambition: “We bet on education. So we had to feed children in school. Now we must bet on feeding the country and we must do it locally.”
He said locally produced school meals could help keep children in school while also strengthening local production and national confidence.