FG Fine-tunes Feeding Of Pupils In Primary Schools

Acting Pres, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo

FEDERAL Government is set to roll out the national Home Grown School Feeding programme targeted at feeding about 5.5 million primary school pupils in the public schools soon in line with the campaign promises of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Presidency has said.

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande‎, in a statement‎ disclosed that the government is on the final stage of preparation for the commencement of the feeding programme, adding that the federal and state governments will review the Strategic Plan for the rollout of the scheme which is part of the N500 billion Social Investment plans of the present administration.

According to Akande, the strategic plans is assiduously projected to run up to 2020 and will clearly provide a nutritious hot meal a day to over 24 million primary school children.

To sustain the programme vis-à-vis financial implications, Akande stated that the federal government is partnering with states and local communities as well as the international community particularly the United Kingdom Imperial College, London’s Partnership for Child Development (PCD) which is providing technical assistance to the Presidency.

“These programmes offer a ‘win-win-win’ for children, farmers and communities alike.
Not only will the Home Grown School Feeding programme help our pupils become better students, it will also boost the local economies, and create new jobs along the way”, the VP said.
Besides the strategic plan, the Vice President will also launch the ‘Global School Feeding Sourcebook: Lessons from 14 countries’, a joint Partnership for Child Development, the World Bank and World Food Programme analysis of national school feeding programmes from across the globe.