Children's Story Shows Importance of School Feeding to Help End World Hunger

A new children's story highlights the importance of school feeding to fight hunger in the country of Nepal and around the globe.

The title of the story is "Snow Leopard, the Yeti and the Girl who climbed Mount Everest."

A little snow leopard in the mountains of Nepal meets the Yeti, who is helping the World Food Programme deliver meals to children. The World Food Programme's school feeding campaign is known as "Fill the Cup." The Yeti teaches the snow leopard about the tragedy of child hunger and why school meals are so important.

The Yeti also tells the story of Nimdoma Sherpa, who climbed Mount Everest. Nimdoma Sherpa is the youngest woman ever to climb the mountain. She benefited greatly as a child from school meals provided by the UN World Food Programme.

"WFP was there to motivate me to begin my schooling and is now supporting me and this amazing group of women from across Nepal to achieve our dream of reaching the top of the world," said Nimdoma Sherpa. "This is an incredible opportunity and we all look forward to promoting WFP's ongoing school feeding efforts in Nepal after we complete our expedition."

Angie Espelage illustrated the story. Espelage is an art graduate from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio.

A free copy of the story is online at the web site of author and historian William Lambers.

Mr. Lambers recently partnered with the UN World Food Programme, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, ChildsLife International and the Barefoot Foundation on a book about school feeding programs. The book is titled Ending World Hunger: School Lunches for Kids Around the World.

Interviews with officials from these organizations detail the need for expanding school feeding through the McGovern-Dole program and international cooperation. Over 50 countries are represented in the publication including Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Nepal, Ethiopia and Somalia.

School feeding is considered a critical aspect of any strategy to end world hunger. New congressional legislation titled "The Roadmap to End Hunger," emphasizes school feeding among other programs to set the world on a path to end hunger. This bill, H.R. 2817, would also create the position of a White House advisor to President Obama on global hunger issues. This same advisor would coordinate the response to hunger from various U. S. agencies. Citizens are asked to show their support for the Roadmap to End Hunger by writing to their representatives in Congress.

Readers can print out copies of the story which can even serve as a mini coloring book. Copies of the story are available here.