WFP Reaches Families Most at Risk with Food Assistance as Post-Ceasefire Scale-Up Gathers Pace

Strategic Insights -

In the aftermath of the ceasefire in Gaza, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has increased food assistance to families across the region, providing crucial aid through bakeries, nutritional support, digital payments, and family food boxes. Since the ceasefire began on October 11, WFP has dispatched over 280 trucks carrying nearly 3,000 metric tons of food, ensuring bakeries remain operational and warehouses are replenished.

Key Takeaways:

  • WFP has resumed distributions of food parcels at five sites, supporting almost 8,500 people with various nutritious food items, including rice, lentils, beans, chickpea paste, tomato paste, and fortified sunflower oil.
  • Since the ceasefire began, WFP has dispatched over 280 trucks carrying nearly 3,000 metric tons of food into Gaza, supporting bakeries, nutrition programs, and general food distributions.
  • WFP has reached 23,000 people with nutritional support and treated 1,200 pregnant and breastfeeding women suffering from malnutrition in October.
  • Over 50,000 households have received digital payments, allowing them to buy food and other essential products from the market, with a goal of reaching 200,000 (nearly 10 percent of the population) by the end of the month.
  • WFP is also providing nutritional snacks to children in temporary learning centers set up by UNICEF and working to clear and rehabilitate key roads in Gaza ahead of the expected opening of additional border crossings.
  • WFP has 170,000 metric tons of food in storage or on its way to the region, with almost 60,000 metric tons ready to be dispatched immediately into Gaza to scale up food assistance to 1.6 million people over the next three months.

Statistics:

  • WFP has dispatched over 580 trucks (nearly 6,000 metric tons) into Gaza to support bakeries, nutrition programs, and general food distributions since the ceasefire began.
  • 57 trucks carrying WFP aid arrived safely in WFP and partners' warehouses in the early hours of this morning.
  • 216 trucks were offloaded at border crossings on behalf of other humanitarian organizations, facilitated by WFP through the Logistics Cluster.
  • Since the resumption of food distributions on October 4, nine bakeries in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis have produced a daily average of over 100,000 bread bundles (2kg) per day.

Sources:

  • United Nations World Food Programme. (2023). WFP reaches families most at risk with food assistance as post-ceasefire scale-up gathers pace.
  • https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-reaches-families-most-risk-food-assistance-post-ceasefire-scale-gathers-pace