Minister says FG will provide school children with balanced diet

chika ebuzor

April 28, 2016 8:39 AM

The Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire disclosed this in an interview with newsmen.

The Minister of State for Health,Dr. Osagie Ehanire

The Federal Government says it will embark on a free school feeding programme for the development of the children in school age.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

"Government as you know is also embarking on school feeding programme to help the development of young children of school age by giving them a balance diet.

"Not that they don’t eat at home but they probably don’t eat the correct thing, the balanced food.

"So, they will get the balanced one meal a day minimum to develop better manpower for Nigeria. That is the purpose.

"So, the free feeding programme is in the schools and also in the IDPs camps at the moment.’’

The minister said that the free balanced diet had been extended to the Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDPs) camp where farming had been disrupted due to insurgency.

"We are learning more about food, those who didn’t know are learning that what you eat is what you are.

"We are spreading the massage on how to feed children properly, to give complementary feeding particularly after the six months of exclusively breast feeding.

"The message will ensure that transition into the age when children will take other kinds of meals has to be communicated in a way that it is complementary and meets the purposes of growth,’’ he added.

chika ebuzor