...says over 400,000 Benue pupils to benefit from school Feeding Programme

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Benue State Government has sacked the 6,512 cooks who served under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP, in the state between 2017 and 2023

This is just as over 400,000 pupils are expected to benefit from the feeding programme in the state.

The disengagement of the cooks was made known Wednesday by the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Mr. Aondowase Kunde while flagging off the training of the State’s Master Cooks of the NHGSFP in Makurdi.

The Commissioner explained that the disengagement of the cooks was part of the ongoing measures to reorganisation the programme in the state.

He stated that the government had also directed that the recruitment of new cooks for the programme be done locally, in the Council Wards to enable common women enjoy the opportunity of being part of the programme.

He said “this is a clear deviation from the past where only influential citizens cornered slots to themselves and their immediate families.”

According to the Commissioner, “this administration conducted a review and evaluation of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme and as part of measures to re-organize the programme, all cooks who served between 2017 and 2023 have been disengaged.

“This measure is to give other citizens the opportunity to benefit from the programme as the Social Investment Programmes are designed to be spread to all Nigerians, particularly the poor and vulnerable within a specified duration of time. This implies that all our would-be-cooks will be persons who have not benefitted from the programme in the past.”

The Commissioner who assured that the recruitment of new cooks for the programme would be handled transparently in line with the programme’s Operational guidelines expressed optimism that “the gains of this exercise will ensure the delivery of safe and healthy meals for the over 400,000 pupils benefitting from the programme in Benue State and also ensure a healthy and safe hygienic environment for our children.

“I want to charge the Cooks who will be trained today to pay rapt attention to the training sessions knowing that they will be required to cascade the training to over 6,512 of their colleagues and thus ensuring a seamless implementation of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in line with standard best practices.”

Earlier, the Benue State Facilitator, Mrs. Joy Ijuwo who expressed hope that the trainees would be fully equipped to step down the training to other cooks in the Local Government Areas, said the training would focus on “the NHGSFP guidelines, food procurement, menu standardization, food preparation, handling, safety and hygiene; financial literacy; Help Desk access; Vendor management.”