Some Bay pupils still going hungry Schools waiting for third-term nutrition scheme funding

SEVERAL Nelson Mandela Bay schools are still waiting for their third-term nutrition programme funding allocation despite the Education Department approving new menus for the programme this week.

The programme provides a healthy meal for pupils from primary and secondary schools in quintiles one to three. For many of these pupils, the meals might be the only one they receive all day.

But the new menus, which will see pupils for the first time being served chicken once a week, have little significance for principal Danile Mavikela of Noninzi Luzipho Primary School in Uitenhage.

More than two weeks since the term started, he said they were still waiting for their third-term funding to materialise.

“Usually by this time we already have our funding, and if we don’t receive it soon we are going to be dealing with a very serious situation. The children depend on these meals and for many of them it’s the only one they receive,” Mavikela said.

“If the children aren’t fed daily, attendance decreases and they struggle to concentrate in class.”

For the 2014 to 2015 financial year, R5.462-billion was budgeted for the programme, which feeds more than nine million pupils nationally. This is an increase of R288.8-million from the previous year.

The figures left Kruisrivier Primary School principal Gavin van Aardt stunned. He said he failed to understand how the department still struggled to deposit money into school coffers.

“The department clearly has the money. Why don’t they just deposit it into the schools’ accounts? I am sure the money is on its way but in the meantime our food supply is basically done.

“Farm children attend this school; many of them walk kilometres just to be here. They rely on that daily meal to sustain them through school and provide them with the strength they need to walk home,” he said.

Booysen Park Primary School principal Yusuf Samuels said the school only joined the programme in April, but department delays already seemed the “norm”.

“We haven’t received our third-term feeding scheme quota yet, but we were warned earlier this year to expect delays,” Samuels said.

Several other schools also reported delays.

Education Department spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the money had, in fact, been deposited but due to a banking error many schools did not receive their funding.

“Together with the bank we are busy with an audit to establish [which] schools didn’t receive their funding . . . We will redeposit in the schools’ accounts on Wednesday,” Mtima said.