School gardens a lifeline for hungry kids

Hope grows: Students cutting vegetables in a garden under the school meals programme at a school in Siem Reap province. — AFP

Among the spinach crops at a rural Cambodian school garden, children test their maths skills while weighing produce – but as food prices rise, the vegetable patch has become a safety net for struggling families.

Long before Covid-19 restrictions ravaged the economy, malnutrition and poverty stalked Cambodia’s youth – the legacy of decades of conflict and instability following the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal rule in the 1970s.