School nutrition programme of BRAC and Banchte Shekha: midline report

Abstract

This study is a process evaluation of School Nutrition Programme (SNP) which assesses the programme implementation process and analyzes the effectiveness of its operations and service delivery. Four issues were considered for exploration: monitor community engagement and their activities, observe health and hygiene practices at home and school, look at the procurement and supply the system and determine the amount of served food and its nutrient compositions. Like the baseline, this study also collected data from two implementing organizations-BRAC and Banchte Shekha. This study aims to assess how effectively the programme is being implemented in the field. Qualitative techniques like focus group discussion (FGD), in-depth interview and observation were applied for data collection. Three different samples were collected from BRAC rural, urban and Banchte Shekha working area. Community people, school management committee (SMC) and mother’s club members, parents, programme and kitchen staff and local vendors were considered as respondents. Besides, observations in kitchen and school provided ample information on health and hygiene practices. Additionally, menu wise amount of raw food materials and its edible portions were estimated from six kitchens. By using conversion factor from raw to cooked food materials, nutrients composition was determined to estimate the food value of served foods. Findings revealed that, after continuing six months, programme staff were able to build a good rapport with different stakeholders that increased their confidence to run their activities smoothly. School authority and parents seemed to be happy with the quality of served food, while less variation in menu (specially in urban area) created monotony. Health and hygiene practices in schools were not in satisfactory condition. In rural area, less use of sanitary latrine might produce and spread germs. After having some experiences, now the programme can be more structured, regular monitoring and integrate with health/nutrition and WASH programmes can be included to derive more benefit from SNP.