Drought’s effect felt at schools
Cost of feeding programmes soar
THE SEVEREdrought, which has hit South Africa’s agriculture sector hard, has become a “huge concern” for the Western Cape Education Department as the cost of food needed for the school feeding programme soars.
Yesterday, Education MEC Debbie Schäfer told the provincial legislature’s standing committee on education that the issue was “affecting us very badly”.
“We’ve just had a bill for R6 million for two to three weeks (of food) in addition to what our budget is.”
She and senior education officials were explaining to the committee how the department planned to spend its budget.
The department has been allocated a budget of about R19 billion for the 2016/17 financial year.
Provincial education head Penny Vinjevold said that the department had been advised to start stockpiling tinned food such as pilchards.
Leon Ely, the department’s chief financial officer, said one possible consideration would be to change the menu that is available to pupils.
Schäfer told the Cape Argus that she would try and raise the matter at a meeting of the Council of Education Ministers, which is scheduled to take place today.
The council consists of the Education Minister Angie Motshekga, her deputy and the nine provincial education MECs.
“We’ll look at every possible measure we can but the children have to be fed. Our pupils can’t learn on empty stomachs.”
In a statement in May last year, Schäfer said allocations for the feeding scheme had increased from R112m in 2009/10 to just over R299m in 2015/16.
She said more than 465 000 pupils from 1 028 schools in the province received two nutritious meals a day. In 2013, the Western Cape became the first province to provide pupils with breakfast.
Schäfer said that the National Development Plan stated that “by 2030, feeding schemes in schools should cover all children in need and provide food that is high in nutritional content and rich in vitamins”.
Pupils receive a different menu on each day of the week and this would typically include rice, samp, soya mince, a protein, fruit, vegetables, jam and bread.