School Feeding Programme: Stakeholders Renew Effort To End Hunger
Stakeholders under the federal government school feeding program, have called for unified efforts to end hunger, especially among children.
National Project Manager of the Renewed Hope National Home Grown School Feeding and the End Hunger Programme, ((RH-NHGSFEHP), Anjor Obande, said government is ready to partner with the Global Alliance for Improve Nutrition, (GAIN), to
introduce fortified rice in the school’s feeding programme.
She made this known at an event organised to introduce the GAIN and ENSAND project in Abuja.
Obande said the project aims to improve and expand beneficiaries of the school feeding programme through multisectoral partnerships.
“Home-grown school meals has the potential through coordinated, multi-sectoral, and consolidated efforts and partnership, to significantly contribute to enhancing food and nutrition security in households and communities all over the country.
“The administration of President Bola Tinubu is committed to restructuring the programme in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda towards ending poverty, reducing the number of out-of-school children and eliminating malnutrition in school age children.
“Recently at the School Meals Coalition ministerial briefing, we committed to expand the programme beneficiaries to include children in military schools, para-military schools, out-of-school children, and children in emergency settings to reach universal coverage by 2025.
“In addition, we have also committed to introducing School Kitchens and Gardens through a Farm-to-Kitchen Initiative, to improve implementation and ensure food system transformation,” she said.
Obande who also stood in for the minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu and the National Coordinator, National Social Investment Programme, (NSIPA), Hajia Halima Shehu, said the duo look orward to a fruitful working relationship with GAIN, especially on the national home-grown school feeding programme.
“We at the RH-NHGSFEHP under the auspice of NSIPA with the support of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation will continue to work towards achieving our separate yet mutual objectives.
“These objectives include empowering Nigerians through sustained access to safe and nutritious diets, thereby contributing greatly to the government’s goal of ending hunger and alleviating
poverty,” she adds.
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