Lagos to begin modified school feeding programme next week

• Targets 37,000 Households, Creates 202 Centres For Beneficiaries
The Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB), Wahab Olawale Alawiye-King said Lagos State would begin its modified Homegrown School Feeding Programme next week. He said the delay was “to put its logistics right.” The Federal Government had kicked off the programme last Thursday.

Alawiye-King said: “The Federal Government felt the Homegrown School Feeding Programme must continue despite schools closure. So, the Ministry of Humanitarian, Disaster Management and Social Development in collaboration with the state government, through the LSUBEB and other agencies, had been working for about four weeks to ensure the directive is carried out.”

Alawiye-King said the identification and verification of the targeted 37,000 households were carried out for two days.

“The description and identification of the households had been carried out and a household is a father, mother and three kids. And, we are giving each household 5kg bag of rice and bean each, palm and groundnut oil, two sachets of tomato paste, half crate of egg and salt.

On whether the items would be given to the beneficiaries weekly, the LSUBEB boss said: “We are starting with this, as a pilot programme, and we would see how it pans out. It was daily, as a school-feeding programme, but since there is a lockdown, we want to start with the dry food. Let’s see how the dry food runs and we shall determine the next step.”

He said about 202 collection centres were created and each centre covers a number of schools, depending on the size of the local council education district.

“We have identified the households in each area and we would give them voucher a day before to collect the items,” Alawiye-King said.