No fewer than 337,589 would benefit from the modified school feeding programme in Lagos, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk, has said.
Farouk made this announcement during the inauguration of the school feeding programme in Lagos on Thursday.
According to her, “The special homegrown feeding intervention will impact 337,589 beneficiaries made up of Parent, Guardians and Care Givers of primary school children in participating schools.
“The identified and selected household will each receive 5kg bag of Rice, 5kg bag of Beans, vegetable and palm oil, salt, tomato paste and 15 pieces of eggs.
READ ALSO: Buhari bows to pressure, submits school feeding vendors list to EFCC
“These rations have been revealed by a nutrition expert to ascertain the nutritional value and benefits to the children.’’
On her part, the Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, said the modified school feeding programme was a continuation of the existing homegrown feeding programme of the state government in conjunction with the federal government whereby 100,000 pupils in public primary school were fed daily.
She reiterated the importance of food in the development of a child noting that the modified feeding programme would go a long way in achieving that.
“When a child is growing its quite imperative that a child should have a good quality balanced diet in order to feed the brain and ensure that the brain grow appropriately because a hungry child cannot learn properly so looking at the take-home ration its truly a balanced diet,” Adefisayo said.
Also, the Executive Chairman of LASUBEB, Hon. Wahab Alawiye-King, said the commencement of the distribution of the take home rations was to ensure that the hardship caused by COVID-19 was minimised, adding that a lot of work had gone into ensuring that the modified home feeding programme was carried out in a transparent and seamless manner.
He said, “In a few days, all the targeted households would have received their vouchers which will enable them collect their food rations. At the end of the exercise, 37,589 households of pupils in primary schools (primary 1-3) would have been fed.’’