The Federal Government says the feeding of schoolchildren at home begins this week.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, said this on Saturday on the sidelines of an event where she opened the distribution of relief items to persons living with disabilities at Karimajiji in Abuja.

Umar-Farouq announced on Wednesday that the FG, in partnership with states, was set to start feeding schoolchildren in their various homes.

The PUNCH reported on April 8 that the FG had finalised arrangements with states to start feeding schoolchildren in their homes as part of measures to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asked on Saturday to state when the programme would commence, the minister said, “By next week (this week) we are going to start off with the FCT (Federal Capital Territory), Lagos and Ogun states, then Kano.

“We have done all the processes and by early next week (this week) we will be able to start. The model is to give food ration to the households where these children come from. We have identified them, we know their communities and we know all the households.”

Umar-Farouq had earlier said food ration would be distributed door-to-door, with vouchers allocated at specific collection times to avoid overcrowding.

She had also stated that the vouchers would be redeemed at designated distribution centres.

Asked to state the number of collection centres where beneficiaries would pick up their vouchers, the minister said, “We are reaching out to 3.1 million households.

“It is in that place where we are going to keep the food ration that we will distribute the vouchers and then they will come to pick up their own ration.”

On the distribution of relief items at Karimajiji, Umar-Farouq said over 1,000 persons would benefit from the support.

She said, “We are here today to start the distribution of relief items to beneficiaries. We have chosen to commence this here because Karimajiji represents one of the most organised and recognised communities of persons with special needs.

“As a follow-up to today’s event, we shall also be visiting other communities and clusters of persons with special needs to provide them with the same relief materials.”

Umar-Farouq said, “These relief items are going to household members and they have been identified. Each household gets one bag of rice, 5kg bag of sugar, five litres of vegetable oil, a packet of magi, sachets of salts, macaroni, six yards of wrapper, etc.

“In this very community, we are attending to 460 households and that means over 1,000 individuals. We will extend this to other states.”

Credit: Punch