The National Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme of the Federal Government will feed 200,000 pupils in Ogun State.Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who spoke yesterday at the opening of a two-day workshop of the HGSF programme in Abeokuta, revealed that the programme would start by September when the next academic year begins.
Amosun said the programme would not only relieve parents of some feeding cost but also increase agricultural production in the state,saying ‘’about 3,000 women, widows and the jobless drawn from the 236 wards in the state who will be empowered will serve as food vendors and improve their economic status.”
The governor stressed that the pupils will enjoy a free nutritionally balanced meal every school day.He said: “We are resolute and committed to creating wealth and empowering our teeming population through this great programme. We are also looking at empowering communities; hence vendors will be sourced from within the communities and all food items will also be sourced within our communities. This also fits in perfectly with the vision of President Mohammadu Buhari to bring development to the grassroots.”
The National Programme Manager of HGSF, Mrs. Abimbola Adesanmi disclosed that the programme is one of the social investment programmes of the Buhari-led administration to increase access, enrolment, attendance and completion in schools.
She revealed that the programme would target 5.5 million pupils all over the country.Adesanmi said that the basic education-feeding programme was to eradicate hunger and malnutrition among school children from primary one to three nationwide.She disclosed that the Federal Government would provide the necessary technical support for all the states to realise the goal of the
programme nationwide.
The programme manager noted that the aim of the programme was to boost nutrition in the minds and bodies of the pupils.Adesanmi also said that the programme was designed to empower people at the grassroots by providing employment opportunities for parents and youths, engaging them as farmers, food vendors, cooks within their communities and local government areas as well as their local government areas”.
