School Feeding in the Sao Francisco Valley - Brazil, 1968. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and has the eighth largest population. Its problems are also on a continental scale and poverty and illiteracy are two of the greatest of them. The national illiteracy rate is 60 per cent and in the more backward areas as high as 80 per cent. The infant mortality rate, 170 per 1.000, is one of the highest in the western world. Since 1965 the World Food Programme (WFP) has been helping Brazil's school feeding campaign (Campanha Nacional de Alimentacao Escolar) by providing $5 million worth of food aid for school lunches and snacks for some 150,000 children who live along the great Sao Francisco River. The project area covers some 600,000 square kilometers and meals are provided in 3,460 schools in 122 widely scattered communities. The carefully balanced rations improve the health of the children and encourage regular attendance. Children of an elementary school in Montes Claros, a small city in Minas Gerais, work in the school garden. The children supplement the meals made from WFF supplies with fruits and vegetables they grow themselves in the garden. At the same time they learn the principles of proper nutrition.