The Department of Basic Education promises that learners who benefit from the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) will start receiving their daily meals from Wednesday, 17 January 2024, when schools open for the new academic year.
With learning and teaching resuming, millions of children who rely on the feeding scheme to get through the day, will need their energy for the day which they source from these meals.
“More than 9,6 million learners benefit from the national school nutrition programme each day” says Mhlanga, adding that “ the department has invested more than R9 billion on the programme to take care of learners from poor communities with the provision of consistent meals while they are in school,” Elijah Mhlanga who speaks on behalf of the department said.
Over 21 000 no-fee paying primary and high schools across the country, depend on the NSNP for children to have a meal each day.
According to Mhlanga, provinces had already made arrangements to have supplies ready and at schools by the time teachers reported back for duty on Monday, 15 January 2024..
“Different provinces are working to ensure that each learner gets their meal from the first day of the school calendar year of 2024,” Mhlanga said.
Meanwhile Advocacy group, Equal Education, has called on the department to ensure administrative and procurement issues posing challenges in provinces are addressed in efforts to avoid learners going hungry.
The request follows challenges faced by KwaZulu-Natal schools early last year where 2.4 million learners in more than 5 000 schools, went without meals because of a supplier who failed to supply the food as agreed with the department.
This has however been resolved. The KZN Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube announced that the province’s department of basic education has decided to continue with its current 1 785 service providers on a three-year contract that is worth R2.9 billion.
Equal Education Researcher, Stacey Jacobs, says for the 2023/24 financial year, the NSNP budget increased to R9.8 billion, an increase of 9.1% from the previous financial year.
“Last year the department of basic education reported that it allocated an additional budget of R1.5 billion over the next three years due to an increase in learner numbers,” Jacobs said. “This is a move in the right direction because the food programme is vital social assistance for learners from vulnerable households that need to be strengthened”.
Jacobs says the NSNP is aimed at alleviating poverty and uphold the right of children to basic food and education.
“The department has acknowledged that the feeding scheme has shown to improve school attendance, punctuality, concentration and the general well-being of learners who receive meals,” Jacobs said.
Equal Education says for many children, the meals provided are the guaranteed meals for the day and is therefore very vital for the NSNP to continue feeding learners on a daily basis.