In May 2008, a national news television station in Bangladesh broadcast two three-minute segments on the successes of the Land O’Lakes School Nutrition Program. The pieces focus on Sagorika, a little girl in rural Dhormopura village, whose parents were too poor to send her to school. Beginning in April 2002, a USDA-funded School Nutrition Program has been working in the poorest counties of Jamalpur District, where Dhormopura is located, to improve the nutritional status of the schoolchildren, increase the enrollment and attendance rates, and alleviate short-term hunger in school-age children. As part of these objectives, the School Nutrition Program provides a nutritious snack of fortified biscuits and milk to children every school day.

In addition to the snack, the School Nutrition Program organizes parents into advisory councils, so that they, too, have a stake in their children’s education. These councils encourage community members to enroll their children, monitor snack distribution, and track teacher attendance. Sagorika’s parents were initially encouraged by the advisory council, who call themselves the “Friends of Education.” After seeing their daughter blossom under regular school attendance, they also let their younger daughter attend. Now, both girls are happy to be learning each day.

Teachers and local government officials are excited by the increased attendance they see in schoolchildren. “The school feeding program has only positive sides,” shared one school teacher in Dhormopura. Indeed, since the inception of the program in 2002, school enrollment as increased by 34 percent across the rural counties in which it is implemented. Akthur Hossein, a local government official, summarized the success of the program and urged that it be undertaken across the nation: “The school feeding program is vital for child’s growth and nutrition. It has proven to become a necessity to be initiated countrywide.”