By Robert Egbe
The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) COVID-19 will kick-off on Monday from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
About 9,026,301 children in 3,131,971 households of the 36 states and the FCT are targeted in the special programme.
The beneficiaries must be public school children in primary 1-3 and must already be registered for the programme.
It is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, which confirmed the starting date in a statement yesterday.
The programme follows a modification of the former NHGSFP and seeks to prevent pupils from losing nutritional gains made during the school term.
Pupils have been home following the nationwide shutdown of schools and lockdown by states, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Muhammadu Buhari on April 27 pledged to deploy additional human, material, and technical resources to strengthen and support states efforts.
Following this, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq modified the NHGSFP.
Under the new arrangement, supplies of food items will be made available to the households of children enrolled in the programme.
Their parents or caregivers, after getting a voucher, can go to designated collection centres and collect food stuffs.
The food package, labelled ‘Take Home Ration (THR)’ because it is uncooked and this model itself is the result of the ministry’s collaboration with state governments.
According to the statement, “The THR is adjudged as the most effective way of delivering on the President’s mandate, given the emergency strictures under which the charge would be executed.
“Also noteworthy is the fact that the ministry had to consult with various teams, educationists and the World Food Programme (WFP) prior to a final decision on the food rations that would be contained in the package.”
