School Feeding: FG to train 150, 000 local cooks nationwide
The Federal Government is planning to train 150, 000 local cooks nationwide.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq said this at the Orientation Programme of Facilitators for the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the programme, convened by the National Social Investments Programme (NSIP), under the NHGSFP in the Ministry of Humanitarian, is to train local cooks nationwide to meet the required standards of the school feeding initiative.
Farouq who was represented by Dr Umar Bindir, National Coordinator of NSIP, stressed that the initiative would lay emphasis on the institutionalisation and the complete implementation of the national home school feeding programme.
“This programme concentrates on the institutionalisation and the full implementation of the national home school programme, which is one of the prime clusters of the National Social Investment Programme.
”We started this programme in 2016 and we are feeding nearly 10 million children nationwide in all the states of the federation.
“This feeding process includes first, empowering women within the communities where the schools are located to cook the food for the children.
”This is a nationwide strategy, we are going to train cook in the country and we have 100 to 150, 000 of them, ” the minister said.
According to her, the training is essential to make sure the cooks are well prepared in terms of behaviour, physical appearance, their cooking methodologies, among others.
“The training will focus on the food safety, hygienic working environment, food procurement, food standardisation as well as financial literacy, ” she said.
Mrs. Flora Goka, Hospitality Consultant with the Institute for Tourism Professional of Nigeria, said the objective of the programme by the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari among other programmes is to raise Nigerians from poverty using social investments programmes.
While expressing her opinion, Mrs Chinwendu Amba, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) NSIP focal person, stressed that the programme would empower the trainees more on the NHGSFP requirements by the Federal Government.
Represented by Mrs Clementina Okoro, Nutrition Officer NHGSFP FCT, Amba added that the training would increase knowledge of the local cooks’ to make nutritious meals for the school pupils.
“This training is for cooks and it is to educate and empower them so that they can cook properly for our children,” she said.
