The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has agreed with the World Food Programme of the United Nations (WFP) to finance 30% of the cost of food for more than 160,000 primary school children in Ukraine as part of support for the school nutrition reform.

"The Ministry of Education and Science and the UN WFP signed a partnership agreement stipulating the implementation of the school meals program in the 2024/2025 academic year. As part of the program support, WFP will transfer 30% of the cost of meals for more than 160,000 students in grades 1-4 in 16 regions of Ukraine. Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Chernivtsi, Zakarpattia, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions are participating in the program," the ministry said in a statement.

It is noted that WFP will also finance 50% of the cost of school meals for 18,000 children studying in underground schools in Zaporizhia and Kharkiv.

According to the statement, this is the third year that the World Food Programme has supported school meals in Ukraine.