The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADMSD) says it will develop a National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) Recipe Book for its cooks to ensure quality meals.
Speaking at a Home-Grown School Programme for Cooks in Abuja, Mrs Aishatu Digil, Team Lead, NHGSFP, said that the purpose of developing the recipe book was to guide the cooks on the best way to have balanced meals for the schoolchildren.
Digil said that the participants were representatives of cooks in the six geopolitical zones, who were expected to extend the knowledge to other cooks in their various zones.
We are here today as part of our process to develop a standardised recipe book for the cooks use on the school feeding programme.
We believe by doing so, we will be able to transfer knowledge and build capacity of our cooks to provide nutritious meals every given time.
We have here with us representatives of cooks across the six geopolitical zones who will participate in the process.’’
She said that the recipe books would also serve as a learning resource, adding that it would attract a lot of good partnerships.
It will also help to sensitise the communities and Nigerians as a whole to what the school feeding programme is about to do,’’ she said.
Similarly, Ms Susan Simpa, a Nutrition Assistant of the ministry, said that the programme was aimed at improving the quality of meals that over 9.8 million schoolchildren all over the country eat.
We are hoping that the manual will help the cooks to improve on the quality of meals they make for the students and to have a standardised pattern of cooking.
So that the end result will be uniform all over the country.
This recipe book, after production, will have virtual components; apart from writing in text, we are going to make pictures on the book so that it will be useful for those that are not educated.
Simpa explained that the pictorial aspect of the recipe book would guide the uneducated cooks to replicate what is on it.
Also speaking, Ms Safiya Sani, the Deputy Director Planning, Research and Statistics of the ministry, said that one of the objectives of the programme was to transform and empower women.
The programme will also fight malnutrition in growing children and also boost the local economy of the communities where the school feeding is taking place.
“We thank the Almighty that since the inception of the programme, we have not had any casualty, maybe children dying in terms of feeding in the school,’’ Sani said.
One of the cooks, Mrs Lydia-Omowumi Ogunmakin from Ekiti State, while appreciating the management of the ministry, said that she would ensure total compliance with the guidelines.
“After this programme, whatever we do, learn and see here, we are going to take it to our home to follow it up and train others,” Ogunmakin said.
