More than 5.6 million learners in 8,800 public schools across all 10 provinces are benefiting from the Government’s School Feeding Programme, which was expanded in 2021 following the introduction of free education by the United Party for National Development (UPND) administration.
The programme, implemented in learning institutions, was rolled out to help vulnerable children whose parents could not afford to provide basic meals for their children and therefore encouraged them to attend school, while a basic meal was provided.
This has worked in tandem with a backdrop of the UPND Government introducing free education of grade to grade 12.
Education Permanent Secretary for Educational Services Kelvin Mwambwe told the Times of Zambia that the Government was also considering collaborating with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to incorporate the Cash for Work (C4W) programme into the School Feeding Programme.
Dr Mwambwe said the school feeding programme relied heavily on voluntary community participation, adding that plans were underway to introduce payments for people who cooked and served meals to learners.
“What we are doing as Government is to see how we can collaborate with the local government ministry so that we use the C4W arrangement in the school feeding programme, so that women cooking are given something to avoid having food in schools with no one to cook,” he said.
Dr Mwambwe said small-scale farmers and cooperatives would also be incorporated into the programme to ensure that it contributed to the country’s economy.
He said that, effective 2027, the Government would open opportunities for registered local farmers and cooperatives to supply produce to schools and receive payments through district education offices upon delivery.
“Coming next year, we are encouraging small-scale farmers and cooperatives to participate so that school feeding feeds into the economy of our country through their products and they get paid by the districts. This is the vision that we have,” he said.
Dr Mwambwe said the ministry had also introduced a milk programme in areas where children were affected by stunting to address nutritional challenges in vulnerable communities.
He said the initiative targeted 45 districts where supplementary nutrition was required.
“The introduction of milk in early childhood education is one of the pilot programmes that the ministry embarked on this year to address stunting in children where nutritional feeding was compromised, to improve their concentration in school and general well-being,” he said.
