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SITEKI – With government yet to deliver food to some schools, parents of pupils at Emafusini Nazarene Primary School have resolved to contribute E200 towards the buying of food to be cooked for their children.

A parent said the resolution was taken during a meeting attended by over parents, whereby they resolved that they should pay this amount to mitigate the situation as the Ministry of Education and Training had not yet delivered food.

ThamsanTa Masilela, who is a guard ian and an elder at the Emafusini com munity, said some of the children were from disadvantaged households, and left home without meals and depended on the food provided at school.

Masilela said this was a good ini tiative but orphaned and vulnerable children (29Cs) would not be able to pay this amount.

+e implored government to act swiftly and deliver the food to schools.

Optimistic

“:e are not sure when government will deliver food as our children are starving. Some of the children are from child headed homesteads. :e are opti mistic that this issue will be addressed as some of the children are failing to concentrate during lessons due to hun ger,” he said.

The school committee Chairperson, Justice Thobela, said the E was a contribution by parents to ensure that their children received meals at the school as government had not yet distributed food.

“This was a resolution taken by par ents to moderate the situation as some children attend lessons without having eaten. It is a decision that was taken holistically to address the issue of food shortage at the school,” he said.

Minister of Education and Training /ady Mabu]a pleaded with some of the schools that had not yet received food to be patient as government was doing everything possible to distribute it.

The minister said even though the delivery process appeared to be moving at a snail’s pace, government would eventually deliver the food to all the outstanding schools.

“I am optimistic that the food will be delivered to schools and we ask for patience. I have to make a follow up on this matter as I have not been updated about the latest development on the food distribution in schools,” she said.

Meanwhile, some schools have ad vised parents to prepare meals for their children due to the fact that government had not yet delivered food to schools.