FOOD security has always been a global concern. A shadow that stalks world affairs, it has and continues to plague many countries, directly impacting, poorer countries, placing food security on the national policy agenda of many developing countries. It is unfathomable to think of children starving, being deprived of much needed nutrition and being rendered malnourished simply because their family cannot afford a solid, well balanced meal for their children. A full stomach helps children concentrate better on their lessons. The school feeding programme, in which a meal or snack is provided by the school daily for each child, is an excellent way to channel vital nutrition to children. I too was a child once, and while my family was far from wealthy, we were never hungry, but those days when we would receive ‘snacks’ from our school were some of the days that I and I’m sure my siblings alike, would highly anticipate.
In fact, we would even plan for those days in advance, securing our plastic bags and bottles from home in order to collect the biscuit and milk that our teachers would share. Those were indeed the glory days.
Nevertheless, our reality in Guyana, which must be acknowledged, is that in spite of how far we have come from where we were, today Guyana is still a poor country, and not every family can afford three square meals for their children each day.
The government recognises and respects this need of children to be properly nourished. The 2010 budget allocation for the school feeding programme clearly proves this. With both the short term and long term educational, social and health implications of malnourished children, the government has already rolled out hundreds of millions of dollars to cater for this programme.
Over G$900 million was expended on the school feeding and school uniform programme in 2010, catering to the nutritional needs of more than 63,000 students, with more than 200,000 students receiving free uniforms.
But as significant as good nutrition is to a child’s educational development, sadly, there were years when this very important need was blatantly ignored by the government of the day.
While school feeding was a feature for some years of the Hoyte administration, it was subsequently dropped, regarded as less of a priority after the international funding that was the backbone, arms and legs of the programme at the time was no longer available. But regardless of the circumstances, for the Guyana government to deprive Guyana’s children of milk is simply unconscionable!
The current government is now committing so much human and monetary resources into providing these basic needs for children in our schools, but it was former President Janet Jagan who ardently fought the PNC opposition in Parliament, to reintroduce the school feeding programme to schools across Guyana.
The PNC who did not support Janet Jagan’s motion of March 16, 1986 where she pleaded with the government of the day in a National Assembly heavily dominated by the PNC, to increase the supply of both locally produced and imported milk, to supply both children’s and adults’ needs, since there was a shortage of milk in Guyana at the time.
Janet’s concern was that milk was necessary for nutritional and educational development; hence her goal was for this new increased supply of milk would be sufficient to be equitably distributed to all of Guyana’s children. This however, was during Hoyte’s Presidency and her proposal was subsequently rejected, with her concerns going unheard, and her fears being realised.
Thankfully, this was not the end. The school feeding programme was subsequently reintroduced after the PPP regained power in 1992. Today, the government continues to channel vital nutrition to Guyana’s children through this programme.