Drought forces menu rethink
THE DROUGHT in the Western Cape has adversely affected the Peninsula School Feeding Association.
The association, which serves hot meals for lunch to 25 000 children at more than 140 primary, high schools and tertiary institutions daily, is now forced to serve sandwiches instead.
For the past few months, schools in the Cape Peninsula have experienced water interruptions, which has left those preparing food without access to the water needed to cook school meals.
“While we cannot match the balanced nutrition of the cooked meal, we adapted our new ‘dry’ lunch menu to include as much nutritional value as possible,” said Amelia Koeries, the association’s operations manager.
About a decade ago the association developed a cooked menu with the help of nutritional experts from the Department of Education to provide for 30% of a child’s daily recommended dietary intake of nutrients.
“We have sourced a baker to specially bake a brown bread for us. This will be served with toppings such as baked beans, alternated with pilchards, which are high in omega oils,” Koeries said.
The association said it had kept a close eye on the drought. “We have done our research on how much water it takes to prepare our meals – more than 200 000 litres are used monthly,” said Petrina Pakoe, the association’s director.