Business Executive Roseanne Myers is questioning why Government is starting a breakfast programme to feed all primary school children from September.
She thinks such universal access is unnecessary. Her view has been challenged by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Economic Affairs and Planning Marsha Caddle, who argued that the fact that parliamentarians, churches and community-based organisations were offering breakfast programmes was evidence of such a need.
Their difference of opinion emerged recently at the Post Budget Discussion Forum hosted by the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) PricewaterhouseCoopers at Hilton Barbados Resort.
Myers, who is a member of the BCCI council, asked why the authorities were going ahead with the programme announced by Minister of Education Transformation Chad Blackman “when the research has not yet been published to say how many children actually need it”.
“Having looked at this issue on behalf of the Chamber for a very short period of time, I have spoken to some persons who have been running breakfast programmes for ten years,” she said, noting that these programmes fed “one hundred per cent of the children who require breakfast in the morning”.
“So I’m trying to understand the rationale where an announcement has been made that every primary school child will be fed breakfast. We are already a nation with our children, you will only get fatter because you’re going to feed them twice.
“What percentage of the children are being fed breakfast at home? You give everybody free breakfast, they line up again and they will eat again.”
Her recommendation was to “take a step back, do the research, look at the examples of who is being fed right now from privately-run programmes by the church and so on”.
“See what those numbers are and see whether we wouldn’t be better off looking at the children at the primary level that really need it, and looking at the children at the secondary level that really need it, and try to use whatever money we have to be able to feed the persons who actually need the breakfast,” Myers suggested.
Caddle had a different view, noting that “one of the things that we know about social expenditure is that often, targeting is more expensive than universality”.
“One of the downsides of targeting as well, is that people are hungry sometimes and not hungry a lot of times. And so when you target a student, which has its own challenges in a country as small as Barbados, you may not always be able to deliver the service to them,” the minister stated.
“I, as a Member of Parliament, help run a breakfast programme. Many Members of Parliament run breakfast programmes. What does that say to you? There is a need.
“Not only are MPs doing it, churches are doing it, community-based organisations are doing it, which says that there is a need, and so I think that we have underestimated that need.”
Caddle asked: “Why do we have a lunch time school feeding programme and not a breakfast school feeding programme?
“It is likely that those who don’t have access to an affordable lunch also don’t have access to an affordable breakfast. So I am not quite as concerned as you that there is likely to be wastage.
“I also think that we are not getting the attribution right in terms of what is causing people to be overweight, because there are many people who are below the poverty line who are overweight in economies like yours, and one of the reasons for that is that they’re getting low quality calories.”
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