A total of 3,131,971 children are expected to benefit as the Federal Government resumes its Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) on Thursday, May 14.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in a statement on Tuesday said the programme will begin in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states
Although school children are at home with schools shut as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Muhammadu Buhari in a March 29 pronouncement directed the ministry to liaise with state governments to develop strategies on the continuation of the school feeding programme.
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The ministry in the statement signed by Deputy Director of Information, Rhoda Iliya said consultation and collaboration with state governments identified the distribution of Take-Home Rations (THR) to the households of the children on the programme as a feasible method of achieving this directive after exploring several options.
“The target beneficiaries are defined as children in primary 1 to 3 in public schools participating in the programme.
“A total of 3,131,971 households are targeted for this intervention,” the statement read in part
Employing vouchers which are QR coded, serialized as well as date and time stamped, the ministry said the identified households will be able to access Take-Home Rations from distribution centres.
“Each household will receive uncooked food items that have been assessed and approved by nutrition experts as adequate for the children.
“Over 6,000 schools will serve as distribution centers for clusters of communities except in some states with unique security and safety issues where other structures will be used.”
The statement said each household will receive a Take-Home Ration valued at N4,200 and made up of 5 kg Bag of Rice, 5 kg Bag of Beans, 500 ml Vegetable Oil, 750 ml Palm Oil, 500 mg Salt, 15 pcs of eggs, 140gm Tomato Paste.
These rations have been reviewed by nutrition experts to ascertain the nutritional value and benefit to the children.
The ministry solicits the support of state governments in deploying security agents to ensure the safety of beneficiaries, sensitize the communities and programme personnel on the need to ensure that this intervention reaches the intended beneficiaries and facilitate the timely delivery of quality food supplies provided by the state aggregators.
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