Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has received emergency funding to feed at least 483000 learners over the next two weeks.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said the province had been hard at work to find a solution that would ensure the pupils who normally receive school meals do not go hungry during this extended school closure and lockdown.
Schäfer said as it stands, the school closure declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa is an extended holiday, with the “lost” teaching days due to be made up during the rest of the year.
“We were thus unable to use our existing National School Nutrition Programme funding to assist during the lockdown, as we need these funds to continue feeding learners when the lost days are made up later.”
She said it was a very complex process to activate while schools were still closed. Some of the considerations included learners who do not necessarily go to their nearest school and travel, by choice, to schools outside of their neighbourhood.
She also mentioned the distribution of takeaway meals or food parcels, and the safety of learners travelling home with food parcels, safety of feeding volunteers and the issuing of permits for travel of volunteers and school staff required to manage the process.
“These are just a few of the challenges that we face and which affect the decisions that need to be made within the next few days on reintroducing the scheme. There might be some variances at local level and this flexibility is required to ensure we reach as many of our vulnerable learners as possible.”
According to Premier Alan Winde, the provincial treasury approved the allocation of R53 million additional funding for emergency food relief programmes that would run across the Western Cape, with R18m for the WCED to initiate a special school-feeding programme from Wednesday until April 20, which would target the existing school-feeding scheme beneficiaries with one takeaway meal a day at approximately 1000 schools.
Khalid Sayed, the ANC’s deputy chief whip in the provincial legislature and its spokesperson on education, said the locked-up school buildings with appropriate facilities could be used for packing and distribution of food parcels by the department’s emergency workers and the preparation of meals under the medical disaster measures.
“Schools can be secured and protected if there are people working there to use it for feeding. The provincial departments of Social Development and Education should work closely together during this period.”
WCED head Brian Schreuder asked school principals where the National School Nutrition Programme was in place to make arrangements for possible takeaway feeding for the learners involved.
“We realise that this is a complicated process as many learners will not be able to access their schools during this closure period.”
Schreuder said the department was busy tracking the learners registered on the feeding scheme at the school nearest to them.
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