Kitchen In a Box

Evidence shows that approximately 154,000 students (51% female and 49% male) don’t have access to an appropriate learning environment in El Salvador. Public schools in rural and urban areas have inadequate infrastructure for preparing, storing, and consuming school meals due to lack of financial resources and knowledge about hygiene, safe food preparation, and nutrition. The situation forces people to use improvised wood-burning stoves, dining rooms, and provisional warehouses inside schools, limiting not only the establishment of a healthy and safe school feeding environment, but also the learning one.

Kitchen-In-A-Box (KIAB) helps to provide an adequate infrastructure that is durable, resistant to severe weather and earthquakes, low-cost, and low maintenance to improve the cooking and storage conditions in schools in El Salvador. With the technical support of WFP Engineering, KIAB transforms recycled containers into kitchens and equips them with all the necessary materials for cooking and storage of food to offer school meals. This new model of infrastructure includes different complementary components such as training to strengthen the school’s capacities in nutrition as well as safe and hygienic food preparation practices, access to safe and sustainable water through rainwater harvesting systems, and renewable solar energy.

WFP El Salvador, alongside the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, implemented KIAB in three schools for the pilot phase. The schools also benefited from the implementation of school gardens and capacity strengthening in nutrition knowledge, cooking, and safe food storage. The project directly impacts 3,120 students in the pilot phase by providing secure and sustainable infrastructure, enabling the offering of healthy meals and an appropriate learning environment. In addition, 20 parents per school were trained in gender, nutrition, food safety, food quality and preparation, food and school gardens during 2023.