United States Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan W Mozena yesterday said America's support for Bangladesh's school feeding program supplements the two nations’ partnership to build greater food security.

Mozena was addressing a ceremony in which 10,440 metric tonnes of wheat donated by US Department of Agriculture were handed over to Bangladesh under the World Food Programme (WFP)-run school feeding programme, "Feed the Future Programme”.

The US ambassador handed over the wheat to the State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Motahar Hossain at the ceremony held at Chittagong Port Grain Silo.

He said the programme is playing an important role in helping Bangladesh increase its agricultural production and in turn assists Bangladeshis to improve their livelihood and ability to procure food.

“Our celebration today is about more than a mountain of donated wheat from America. What we celebrate today is partnership between America and Bangladesh to nurture the children of Bangladesh physically and mentally to build the nation's citizens of tomorrow,” Mozena said.

“Our joy today is mainly for knowing that this wheat will soon be used to create nutritious food that will be distributed to poor children throughout the nation,” said Mozena, who hopes that with these nutritious foods building their bodies, the children are more likely to remain in school and study better.

“They can learn and develop their skills

necessary to assure the brightest future achievable by this nation," he said.

Christa Rader, country representative of WFR said the wheat that is donated will be converted into biscuits, not just ordinary biscuits but biscuits that are fortified with vitamins and minerals, which are needed by small children for proper growth and learning.

She said the contribution from the United States would feed 350,000 children in 2,000 schools in the poorest areas of Bangladesh.

Christa said, “Five million children, out of the total of 20 million children who attend primary schools, live in the poorest areas. Together with the government support and WFP support and help from donors, 2.7 million of these students living in poor areas receive school feeding support."

"We launched the National School Feeding Programme in September 2011 and initially 55,000 children would get school feeding from the government's own resources. Today the government assists 1.4 million children in this country with school feeding from its own resources. This is an enormous achievement,” she said.

Christa claimed that the feeding programme has increased enrolment by up to 10 percent and attendance also by up to 10 percent and has reduced drop out of children from school in the poorest areas of Bangladesh.

Ahmed Hossain Khan, director general of Directorate of Food, and Saiful Hoque Chowdhury, senior assistant chief of Economic Relations Division of the finance ministry, also spoke at the ceremony.