The pilot project rolled out this year will be used as a template for countrywide expansion
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Sept. 7, 2022
No child should go to school hungry – those were the words of Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca, when he spoke about the National Healthy Start Feeding Program during the 2022 budget debate. Two million dollars have been allocated to the program by the government of Belize, and with the help of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Republic of China Taiwan, this pilot project will provide a healthy meal to every child in the first six schools selected to be participants in the program this school year.
Ultimately, the goal of the ministry is to carry out a nationwide rollout of the school feeding program, since, as Chief Education Officer, Yolanda Gongora explains, this will not only increase enrollment but will also lead to a greater capacity to learn among students.
“One of our strategic responses in our BES plan is to reduce vulnerability among our young learners. How can we do that? We can do that by increasing school feeding programs,” Gongora said, explaining that this realization sparked the launch of the Healthy Start Feeding Program.
As mentioned, 6 primary schools are currently benefiting from the program—two each in the Belize, Orange Walk, and Corozal Districts. The ministry plans to use the insights gained from the implementation of the program in these six schools to guide the rollout of the program countrywide.
“With these six schools, we are providing a meal for every single child, so we will be covering over 1,000 students in this project. It will be used to determine how do we proceed to implement the program across the country,” Gongora said.
She spoke about the impacts of malnutrition on students’ ability to focus and learn in the classroom.
“Malnutrition affects the ability of our students to learn, because they are unable to remain focused, they are unable to think properly, and teachers may interpret that as misbehavior rather than understanding that the student is unable to focus. When that happens, our enrollment in school decreases.” Gongora explained.
During the 2022 budget debate, Minister Fonseca said, “Our goal is that no child should go to school hungry. We understand that children who are hungry cannot learn in the same way as a child that is properly fed; that child will not be able to pay attention in school.”
The new school year began on Monday of this week. The Ministry is aiming to have the program implemented in other schools by next year.