By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunmedia.net
THE National School Breakfast Pilot Programme will expand nationwide in the upcoming academic year, according to Minister of Education Glenys Hanna Martin.
The programme provides free, healthy, and nutritious breakfasts to students in public schools across the country. The Davis administration has highlighted that the initiative ensures no child goes hungry, allowing them to focus and learn effectively in school.
Mrs Hanna Martin informed reporters this week that the programme's expansion will include schools on the Family Islands, as well as primary and comprehensive schools.
“Training will begin very shortly and some I believe already is underway,” she said during a school repairs tour.
“The Ministry of Health is involved in how the menu is developed, the combination of values of food. It's a very carefully thought-out project, and it's going to expand in a few weeks.”
She also noted that the programme is producing positive results, with more students attending school without the concern of missing meals. She said officials search indicates a correlation between higher attendance and the breakfast programme.
In April, the programme expanded to five schools in New Providence: CW Sawyer Primary School, Stephen Dillet Primary School, Woodcock Primary School, Yellow Elder Primary School, and E P Roberts Primary School. The expansion provided 2,300 students within these schools free breakfast.
In October 2023, the $1m National Breakfast School programme officially launched in New Providence with four primary schools and expanded to four Family Island primary schools in November 2023. Mrs Hanna-Martin said participant schools in New Providence student attendance at the time had increased by 3.9 per cent during the initial months of the programme. Family Island schools recorded an increase of 7.2 per cent in attendance, she said.
Comments
quavaduff 3 months ago
Excellent program. No better way to spend the public treasure than to feed the children trying to obtain an education. Bravo Bahamas!
bahamianson 3 months ago
So , one unemployed ,28 year old, single mother should have her five children fed by the people when other femal3s chose not to have childrwn for different , reckless, lousy men because they have realized that it isnt worth it to open your legs for clowns? This is a recipe for failure. The system needs to teach children the consequences of life decisions. Our schools are not doing a good job of this, clearly. We need to teach the girls to keep their legs closed because the young men are hopeless.
DreamerX 3 months ago
No. Let only your children and children's children feel hunger if that's what you want. You fragment.
LastManStanding 3 months ago
Maybe some of us aren't stupid enough to bring children into the world not being able to feed them dumbass. Unless there was rape involved at some point, having children is a CONSCIOUS decision made by the parents of that child....so why have children that you can't afford to feed? I don't have anything against the program per se but the government IS NOT morally obligated to feed anyone's children, neither is it (or teachers for that matter) responsible to raise them in any other way. The problem is the vast majority of Bahamians are severely entitled with zero concept of personal responsibility and feel that the government is supposed to take care of them at every turn. I do feel sorry for the children born into these shitty low IQ households that shouldn't be reproducing in the first place, but we cannot afford to keep encouraging this behaviour. Even if all the stealing and corruption stopped tomorrow, there are much bigger priorities like finally fixing our third world shithole power grid (which is actually a responsibility of the government) that take precedence over spending money on what amounts to the most basic of the parents responsibility.
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