MEAL Programs
Virtually every country seeks to provide meals to their school children as the benefits of school feeding programs are well documented. Recent studies by the World Food Programme and others have concluded that school feeding programs" provide a productive safety net that provide both educational and health benefits to the most vulnerable children, thereby increasing enrollment rates, reducing absenteeism, and improving food security at the household level.” The World Food Programme studies have concluded that "school feeding programs also have a positive impact on nutritional status, gender equity, and educational status, each of which contributes to improving overall levels of country and human development and the transfer income to families."
Despite the advantages of school feeding programs however, the benefits are not being realized in developing countries where the need is the greatest. The reasons for the ineffectiveness of these programs in developing countries are many. Independent studies from the USAID office of Nutrition determined that distribution, management and organizational deficiencies are the primary reasons for a lack of sustainability of the feeding programs and, as a result, are more dependent upon external support.
Understanding the disconnect within the existing framework within developing countries, especially in rural areas, OTB.Global has developed a "last mile" solution that effectively solves the school feeding issues documented. And, with over 13 million meals served in some of the harshest environments in the world, OTB.Global has a track record of successfully delivering hot nutritious meals to where and when they are needed, thus answering the problems of distribution, skilled management and professional standards that are lacking in the developing world.
OTB.Global recognizes that the plight of hungry children and small farmers within a communityare explicably linked and a holistic and sustainable approach to resolving both these questions can be answered, in part, with an OTB.Global kitchen.
Small local farmers struggle against many natural and economic hardships, notwithstanding, the lack of a consistent and recurring market in which to sell their crops exasperates the cycle further thus, impoverishing the farmer and prohibitingthe benefits that additional capital would provide to expand and or improve their farming operations. Unfortunately, most rural farmers of this type in developing countries consist of women, thus deepening gender inequalities at the same time. This lack of consistency of reliable markets is one the principalcauses preventing farmers from escaping the poverty cycle that they endure.
OTB.Global kitchens provides the mechanism for many local farmers to sell their crops and at the same time provides the means to feed children from their own community. The increased volume enjoyed by the farmers resulting from the OTB.Global kitchen provides the setting for other important initiatives such as sustainable agriculture practices and crop rotation initiatives which are provided by one of OTB.Global's sustainability partners.
Taking this to the next step, some OTB.Global clients have initiated freeze drying and/or dehydration operations to maximize the utilization of the farm co-ops. These initiatives provide year round access to food supplies and introduces the ability to transport and market produce, without spoilage, in areas well beyond the local community. Because of the inherent storage life of either freeze dried or dehydrated produce, the initiative creates a leveling effect of scarcity in subsequent years caused by drought, pestilence or other natural disasters.