A surge in violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state has seen an estimated 146,000 people stream across the border since August 25, including malnourished pregnant women, children and elderly people.
"So far WFP has provided more than 28,800 new arrivals with a three-day supply of high-energy biscuits, while 28,000 people have received a hot meal of khichuri, a kind of rice and lentil dish," the agency said.
It said it had set up communal kitchens alongside other aid agencies including Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), the Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The agency appealed for $11.3 million (9.5 million euros) in donor funds to support new refugees along with those already in camps.
UNICEF has said 80 percent of the refugees coming into Bangladesh are women and children, placing a huge burden on the country's overstretched refugee camps.
Aid agencies have also had to end food distribution in northern Rakhine because of the fighting. UNICEF said it was currently unable to reach some 4,000 children in the Rakhine towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung it was previously treating for malnutrition.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar, which regards them as illegal immigrants even though many have been there for many generations.
There were already some 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, most living in squalid camps near the border that aid agencies say are now overflowing.
Rohingya refugees stretch their hands for food after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh. AFP
The World Food Programme is distributing food to thousands of people in Bangladesh who have fled violence in Myanmar, the UN agency said Wednesday.
