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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke, Harare Bureau

THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has received an allocation of US$15 million from Treasury to support the procurement of relish by schools under the Government’s school feeding programme.

The fund seeks to complement the maize grain being released to the schools by the Grain Marketing Board to ensure the provision of at least one balanced hot meal to learners a day.

So far, 9 605,95 tonnes of mealie -meal or maize grain has been collected under the Emergency School Feeding Programme. However, many schools, particularly in rural areas, have been struggling to provide the relish to ensure learners have the required four star meals.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Torerayi Moyo expressed satisfaction with the amount of food being given to learners. “So far, we have observed that in towns all our schools have received mealie-meal. In the rural areas, the majority of our schools have received mealie-meal but we still have some schools that have not received because of logistic challenges but these challenges are being addressed. In addition to mealie-meal, the Government has also allocated US$15 million to procure things like kapenta, beans, cabbages and so on,” he said.

To make the money more accessible, Minister Moyo said the Government had decentralised the funds to provinces to ensure that all schools could access it.
District schools inspectors were aware of the availability of the funds, which they were using to procure relish.

However, Minister Moyo said the fund was only a stop gap measure to push schools through until they established projects that could sustain the programme on a long term basis. This includes nutrition gardens, poultry projects and others where schools get income while learners also develop entrepreneurial skills besides getting food.

“Our thrust as Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is for the provision of school development units and also for entrepreneurial skills through fundraising. We want our schools to embark on projects,” he added.

While some schools have started accessing the fund, there are some that are still working with communities to support the school feeding programme.
At David Livingstone Primary School in Umguza district, Matabeleland North, the school is putting in place modalities to apply for the fund.

School head, Mr Nkosinathi Maphosa said parents were chipping in to provide relish for the 762 learners who were getting two meals every day. “We received 119 bags of mealie-meal and we are getting relish from the parents who are contributing a dollar a child per month. The relish comprises vegetables, beans and soya chunks and we are planning to include a meat source as time goes on. We are feeding them every day with porridge in the morning and sadza in the afternoon,” he said.

Mr Maphosa said the programme had a positive impact as the pass rate had improved to 74 percent last year from 60 percent. The rate of absenteeism had also declined since the beginning of the programme.

Owing to the El Nino induced drought, some families are struggling to provide adequate food and this has resulted in learners missing classes, losing concentration in class and dropping out of school due to hunger.

The school feeding programme is part of Government efforts to improve the welfare of learners while also reducing the rate of malnutrition among children.
The country is fighting a triple burden of under nutrition, over nutrition and micronutrient deficiency and has plans to significantly reduce the incidence by 2030.

Matabeleland North provincial nutritionist Mrs Alert Moyo said the 2024 Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment had revealed that the province had high rates of stunting at 29 percent in the urban areas and 27 percent in rural areas.

The Provincial Food and Nutrition Security Committee was working with all the other nutrition sector members to come up with programmes to address the challenge.

“We have the school nutrition programme that we are implementing, and we are focusing on school meals and iron folic acid supplementation within the guidance of our school nutrition guidelines,” Mrs Moyo said.

The committee was working to make sure the schools provided a balanced diet to learners. “We are receiving maize meal, maize grain through the Department of Social Development. And we are working with our stakeholders, we are working with the caregivers to ensure that our children receive a full and balanced diet. And we are coming in with the relish, we are coming in with the beans, the legumes, the animal source foods so that we ensure they have a four-star meal on their plate when they have the hot meals at school,” Mrs Moyo said.