Haiti creates food program to provide meals to school children

Haiti’s government has kicked off a program that it hopes will provide meals to 2.2 million school children across the country.

The effort is called “Aba Grangou,” Haitian Creole for “Down With Hunger,” and will enlist 10,000 workers to fan out across the nation. Half of the targeted children will be under the age of five.

Hunger and malnutrition have long been perennial problems in Haiti.

The country’s farms have been devastated by the effects of cheap food imports and deforestation.
More than half of Haiti’s 10 million people get by on less than US$2 a day and they are vulnerable to fluctuating food prices on the global market.

First Lady Sophia Martelly announced the program Tuesday.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press