Feeding scheme in hot water

Drought puts damper on cooked meals at schools

THE CAPE Town water crisis is having an impact on the meals being served at underprivileged schools as pupils are being served sandwiches instead of cooked meals. The Peninsula School Feeding Association (PSFA) changed its menu to cut down on water usage. However, concerns about whether it was nutritious have been aired.

Long-standing feeding scheme donor Barbara Hey said she is concerned about the nutritional value of the replacement meal and a plan should be made to supply the scheme with water, as the peanut butter or pilchard sandwiches are not a substitute for a good meal.

Hey said the meal is the only nutritious food some of the children receive all day and it is not enough to support their immune systems.

PSFA director Petrina Pakoe said the organisation sent out information about the menu change which was made in the first school term, after water cuts resulted in food being stockpiled and wasted while children were left hungry.

“This decision was not taken lightly. We did our research during the third school term of 2017 and found that on days when there were water cuts, schools were not cooking at all. This resulted in no cooking so children were not eating, resulting in stockpiling at schools, which is wastage that the PSFA tries its utmost to prevent.

“It’s not our intention to compromise the nutrition of our children on the programme by the change of menu. This is a six-month programme in which we were being proactive in saving water and ensuring that our children eat every day.”

Pakoe said that children are served cooked maize meal in the morning and are given an alternative of peanut butter and jam, pilchards and baked beans on brown bread in the afternoons. The meals replace fish breyani and butternut, samp and beans and mince and carrots.

Pakoe said while the meal is not cooked, the spreads provided have been reviewed by a dietitian to show that the nutritional value is not less than what was provided with two cooked meals.

She also said that the children are not negatively impacted and the organisation has managed to save 200 000 litres of water per month.