Turkey does not join the School Meals Coalition Global Summit

The School Meals Coalition was established by 90 countries in 2020 to commit to the balanced and healthy nutrition of children. The coalition held its first global summit in the capital of France, Paris, on October 18-19.

Republican People's Party (CHP)) MP İsmet Güneşhan criticized Turkey's absence from the coalition and not participating in the summit in a statement on his social media account.

Güneşhan said, "The program's goal is to ensure that all children have access to healthy and nutritious daily meals in their schools by 2030. However, Turkey is not part of this coalition. We are questioning why Turkey is not in the coalition. Whatever needs to be done to become a member of the coalition should be started immediately. The oppressed in the system created by the AKP (Justice and Development Party), where a handful of Palace supporters get richer and the people become even poorer, should not be children."

Conclusions of the summit

Güneşhan cited the results from the summit in his post. Accordingly the summit has concluded that:

"It is now time to invest more in school meal programs to address unprecedented challenges that the world is facing. According to the latest data available, school meals are currently reaching 418 million children worldwide, and there has been a $5 billion increase in domestic funding for these programs.

"Low-income countries have increased their domestic investments in school meals by 15%, creating 4 million jobs, the majority of which are for women. We have come a long way, but access to school meals that can change the lives of millions of the world's most vulnerable children is still blocked.

"To achieve the global goal of ensuring that all 724 million primary school children have access to nutritious meals in their schools by 2030, we must reach the 430 million children who currently lack access to these programs.

"Progress is impossible without political will, investment, and implementation in every country. Children everywhere, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, deserve at least one meal at school; for some, it's their only meal of the day. Governments must continue to prioritize these programs."

(RT/PE)