FG DISTRIBUTES FOOD UTENSILS TO SCHOOLS IN ENUGU STATE, CAUTIONS AGAINST CORRUPT PRACTICES
REPORTER: CHUKWUBUIKE MADU
The Federal Government has charged cooks and other relevant stakeholders in the implementation of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme to ensure that best service standards are followed in giving the pupils the free meals.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk made this known in an event marking the distribution of cutleries and plates to public primary schools in Enugu State.
Handing over the food utensils to the Enugu State Government on Wednesday, the Minister, who was represented by Mr. Silas Wuyah, said that the items and meeting with state government were meant to strengthen the implementation of the programme.
According to the Minister, the National School Feeding Programme, which is one of the four major social intervention programmes of the Federal Government, provides one free meal to over nine million pupils in primary schools across the nation.
She noted that the Ministry had commenced enrollment of additional 5 million school children into the feeding Programme in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Though Enugu State joined the programme in 2016, effective participation of the state in the programme began in 2017.
So far, 197,140 pupils in 1,030 schools in Enugu State are enrolled in the school feeding programme with 3,005 cooks providing services for the school children.
The Minister urged the cooks and other state officials handling the day to day running of the feeding to ensure best hygiene standards were applied for safe consumption of the free meals by the pupils.
Hajia Farouq also called the handlers to ensure proper deployment and utilisation of the branded food utensils.
The Minister further requested that Enugu state government should provide administrative funds for monitoring and other functions, saying the “state government by design is to provide funds for feeding primary 4–6.”
She sought for support in sensitisation through various structures on importance of the programme and the need for it to be protected from corrupt practices by those entrusted to prepare the meals, supply food items and even coordinate the activities.
The Focal Person for the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme in Enugu State, Dr. Innocent Ogbonna, commended the Federal Government for the passion in sustaining the programme in the state and assured of the state government’s commitment to serve the children better.
“As a state, we are assuring the Federal Government and the ministry of our total commitment to the success of the programme as Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is much more passionate about it.
“We are grateful to be among the few states that have benefited from the cooking utensils provided free-of-charge to our cooks by the ministry to better the programme in terms of hygiene and standardisation,” he said.
A representative of the Enugu State Commissioner for Education and Programme Manager, Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, Mr. Ifeanyi Onah noted that the programme had greatly boosted school enrollment.
Mr. Onah described the programme as laudable and an enhancer of all aspect of primary education in the state.
He appreciated the Federal Government and the ministry for the food utensils and other items meant to give the programme a boost in the state, urging the cooks to make judicious use of the utensils.
“We are assuring the ministry that the items will be put to judicious use and well-protected to serve its purpose for a long time.
“For the cooks, from today onwards, it will be punishable for any of you to serve the children with private plates, you must serve the pupils with these new branded government plates,” he insisted.
One of the 3,005 cooks engaged by the Enugu State Government for the feeding programme, Mrs. Ugwu, who was overwhelmed with joy for being part of the scheme, said they had become income earners.
She observed that Programme had reasonably increased enrollment in primary school and promised to make good use of the utensils.
“We noticed that since we started cooking, the number of children coming to school has kept increasing and the children are happy they eat in school.
“Some of them complain their parents can’t provide breakfast for them everyday, so our food is now their joy.
“We are grateful for the new cooking utensils, we will use them well and handle them with care because the Federal and state governments are trying as we now join those that receive government alerts on our phones,” she remarked.
Meanwhile, a refresher training will commence on April 28 for all cooks under the programme in Enugu State.
