adminRumbidzayi Zinyuke in NYANGA
MORE than 3 800 tonnes of grain have been collected under the emergency school feeding programme as the Government moves to provide meals for learners and combat malnutrition.
This was announced after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting when the Government said the initiative, which aims to provide nutritious meals for children vulnerable to the effects of the El Nino induced drought, is going on well.
The school feeding programme is crucial in addressing food insecurity which has affected more than 7 million Zimbabweans and improving the educational outcomes of children.
In Nyanga, 34 schools are currently benefitting from the initiative, which, according to the district nutritionist Ms Enessy Makaure, will result in a significant decline in the rates of malnutrition.
“We have 34 schools that are implementing with, 10 Secondary schools and 24 Primary schools. We have sadza on the menu but then the relish alternates from vegetables to beans and sometimes meat sources when they get them and we are hoping that every child gets a hot balanced meal every other day at school,” she said.
Nyanga district has a triple burden of overweight, underweight and children with micronutrient deficiencies.
According to the Zimbabwe Livelihood Assessment report of 2024, about 11 percent of children in the district are overweight while about 5 percent are underweight.
Ms Makaure said the school feeding programme would address these challenges.
“We want to make sure that children get a four-star diet at school. For overweight children, we have physical activity embedded in the school nutrition programme so that every child gets some activity so that they get normal body mass indices at the end of the day,” she said.
At Nyamhuka Primary School, 664 learners are getting balanced meals as a result of the programme, which started in 2021.
School head Dr Doit Chikanyau said they had already received the allocation of grain for this year’s feeding programme.
“We are feeding ECD A to Grade 3 at the moment but we intend to feed the whole school. We embarked on a number of projects to produce our own food in the school. We have a nutrition garden where we are growing a lot of vegetables and we also have rabbit projects, layers and broilers. Our parents also chip in,” she said.
Dr Chikanyau said the projects were sustaining the school feeding programme thereby preventing absenteeism and improving the health and well-being of learners.
Government, through the national food and nutrition security committee, is moving to ensure that the initiative is rolled out across all provinces.
This is being done through the multi-sectoral sub national committees which are working with the schools and communities.
National food and nutrition security committee chair Mrs Nester said the interventions being done by schools to supplement the feeding programme were important in addressing the food and nutrition challenges.
“There is a multi-sectoral approach to doing things and this is what we call multi-sectoral planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and trying then to identify and close the gaps as a team,” she said.
Online Reporter