The Ministry of Education and Youth has allocated $1billion to the School Feeding Programme for the new school year, which begins today.

Speaking at a JIS Think Tank recently, Director of the School Feeding Unit in the Ministry, Helen Robertson, explained that there are two components to the programme - the traditional cooked lunch and the nutribun and milk/drink component - under which thousands of students at primary, all-age, basic and selected high schools are provided with a nutritious meals on a daily basis.

Under the traditional component of the programme, some 636 schools will receive vegetable oil, long grain white rice, cornmeal, canned mackerel, canned beef and flour to provide lunches for 175,000 students, in addition to a feeding grant of $350 for each student. In addition to the commodities, students at the basic school level will receive $250.

"The feeding grant is used to provide protein and other items to facilitate the programme," Robertson explained, noting that 87,000 basic school students are slated to benefit.

In terms of the nutribun and milk/drink programme, she told JIS News that approximately 136,000 children will be fed daily under this component.