Addressing a UN commission’s discussion of Covid and poverty, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia observed that “school closures have hit the poorest and children in vulnerable situations and their families the hardest.”

“Millions of children who were already in vulnerable situations became victims of social conditions that forced them into child labor and other forms of exploitation, preventing their return to school,” the apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations added. “Moreover, the disruption of school meal programs, often the only reliable source of daily meals for many children in the poorest regions of the world, has contributed to an increase in food insecurity and malnutrition.”