Briefing Papers Number 14, February 2012 | Page 13

universal primary education. Ensuring that girls receive the
nutrients needed to do well in school and promoting better
nutrition practices helps achieve MDG 3: Promote gender
equality and empower women. Well-designed primary
school nutrition interventions improve the food security of
children and their families and provide nutrition education
and health care. Community (including school) nutrition
education is a highly cost-effective nutrition intervention.80

Community and School Growth Monitoring
and Promotion

Jim Stipe

Growth monitoring (assessing a child’s growth pattern) is
the process of following the growth rate of a child in comparison to a standard by periodic, frequent anthropometric
measurements in order to assess growth adequacy and identify early growth faltering.81 Due to lack of nutrients or lack
of adequate access to healthy food, more than one in five of
the world’s children under age five are underweight for their
age.82 Simple strategies such as closer growth monitoring
can help prevent early childhood malnutrition.
Although programs like the McGovern-Dole school feeding program play a critical role in helping children attend
and stay in school and also help boost their nutrition by
sending food home with them, more could be done through
these programs to educate mothers on the importance of the
1,000-day “window of opportunity.”83 School and community

These kindergarten children in India receive a nutritious lunch every day.

www.bread.org

staff and volunteers also need more training in interpreting
health records and recognizing potential danger signs. Making growth-monitoring data available to communities for decision-making can