Two weeks into the new National Breakfast Programme, Government says the initiative is operating without significant delivery problems as it continues to assess how many children will actually take up the free meals.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Transformation Kim Belle said the programme has received “an overwhelmingly positive level of gratitude and appreciation” from parents, principals and the wider public since its September 7 launch.
However, she added that the ministry was still in a monitoring phase, with future staffing and catering requirements to be determined by the actual demand at individual schools.
Not mandatory
“The Ministry of Education Transformation has been very clear that every child is entitled to breakfast should they so desire. However, it is not mandatory,” Belle said.
“Time will determine the number of meals needed per school and the catering will be tailored to match the demand. This also goes for the human capacity needed going forward.”
The programme was designed to provide free breakfast to children in public nursery and primary schools.
Some of the options on the menu are fresh fruit, yogurt parfait, protein muffins, burger bites, breakfast egg muffins and chicken and vegetable basket.
On launch day, Minister of Education Transformation Chad Blackman said about 17 000 students in the primary school system would be able to benefit.
He explained the programme was intended to ensure children did not start the school day hungry, and to ease pressure on parents who might not have the time or resources to prepare breakfast before school.
Blackman said the menu provides a variety of offerings that are intended to be both delicious and nutritious.
“They’re different menu options, some savoury, some not so savoury, but they’re all nutritious meals as well. So, I invite the public to go on to our website or go on to social media and you will see.”
The minister described it as part of Government’s wider effort to improve nutrition, concentration and learning.
Meanwhile, sources told the Weekend Nation that staff at the School Meals Department were up in arms over a lack of assistance as the breakfast programme has been added to their substantive duties, with “just a few trainees from [Hotel] PomMarine brought in to help”.
Belle said there was no new recruitment drive for the School Meals Department.
Instead, she noted, existing labour had been reorganised, with some workers who previously spent time on meal preparation being redirected towards “organisation, packaging and delivery”, with resources from PomMarine.
Scheduling
“Thoughtful scheduling of existing staff and a partnership with our sister Ministry (of Technological and Vocational Training), with human resources from the PomMarine Hospitality Institute, eliminated the need for recruitment of additional staff to meet the capacity,” Belle said.
She did not provide specifics on the number of PomMarine personnel involved, the School Meals positions that would otherwise have been required or the positions currently filled.
Belle said there had been no significant concerns about the timely delivery of breakfasts, but she acknowledged there could be an “occasional late delivery”, adding these were generally linked to “external factors such as weather or road conditions” rather than weaknesses in the operation.
She credited the School Meals Department for adapting to the expanded workload: “They have really rallied around the programme.”
Belle revealed that the ministry had received numerous letters and other communications praising the initiative and its impact on children and families.
Principals and teachers have also reported what she described as a “significant increase” in punctuality among children associated with the breakfast initiative.
Minister Blackman had said the ministry would be monitoring both food quality and delivery times to ensure breakfast did not interfere with the start of classes.
Barbados has 68 public primary schools, according to the ministry’s nursery and primary education statistics. (NS)
The post Ministry monitoring breakfast numbers appeared first on nationnews.com.
