Latest update March 24th, 2025 7:05 AM
Private entities launch expanded school feeding programme
Education Minister, Shaik Baksh and Executive Director of SSOS, Jerry LaGra, sampling the snacks soon to be provided to schools around the country.
Banks DIH, Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) and the Society for Sustainable Operational and Strategies (SSOS) have once again joined with the Ministry of Education in a national school feeding programme at an estimated cost of $1.4B for this year.
The three companies, yesterday, signed on to provide biscuits, cassava bread, Topco fruit juice and peanut butter for school children around the country, in the Ministry’s boardroom, Brickdam, Georgetown.
The three-part programme provides hot meals and snacks to schools in the Hinterland and Coastal and is currently being expanded to encompass an additional 55 schools in both areas.
Education Minister, Shaik Baksh, yesterday, told the media that at the end of last year some 83 schools were covered under the schools feeding programme, which saw more than 1,500 primary school children being provided with meals and snacks.
The programme, which costs the Ministry over $500M annually, is managed by the Ministry of Education with full participation of communities in the hinterland areas.
A second part of the programme, which provides a snack to school children, consisting of peanut butter, cassava bread and juice, is being managed by the SSOS with participation by University of Georgia. Last year, 14 schools were targeted, at a cost of $30M. However, this is being expanded to include an additional 26 schools this year.
The biscuit and juice snack programme, which are being provided by Banks DIH and DDL, will continue to be provided to schools in the coastal regions.
In the coastland, all nursery schools will receive supplies, while only grades One and Two of all primary schools will receive snacks.
The entire programme covers over 51,000 school children in Guyana, the Minister said.
“We are hoping that it will lead to a nutritious snack being provided which will improve the health of the children, assist in their concentration and the learning process in the school system, also the attendance.
“It has already been shown in the hinterland that attendance rates have improved,” Baksh said.
The Ministry intends to keep track of its feeding programme in the hinterland areas through its longitudinal impact study by mid year so as to gauge its success.
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