PROGRAMME · SINCE 2017
Home-Grown School Feeding
One hot meal on every school day for every pupil in Primary 1 to Primary 3, cooked by 14,600 local caterers buying from Kano farmers. ₦18,200,000,000 committed this year, reaching 1.46 million pupils.
A meal, and what it is for
A hungry child does not learn. That is the whole of the argument, and it is supported by the attendance registers of the schools in the programme: enrolment in Primary 1 rose sharply in the year feeding started in a school, and it stayed up. The meal is also, for a proportion of the pupils, the only balanced meal of the day, which is why the menu is specified by nutrient content rather than left to the caterer.
The programme covers Primary 1, Primary 2 and Primary 3 in every public primary school in the State — about 1.46 million pupils on every school day. It is deliberately not extended thinly across all six primary years. The evidence is that the early years are where a meal changes enrolment and attendance most, and a full meal for three years is worth more than a partial one for six.
"Home-grown" is the second half of the design. The food is bought in Kano, from Kano farmers and Kano markets, by cooks who live in the community the school serves. Roughly 14,600 caterers are engaged, almost all of them women, each cooking for one school. The money spent on the meal stays in the local economy rather than leaving it, and that is an explicit objective of the programme rather than a side effect.
Scale of the programme
1.46m
Pupils fed daily
Primary 1 to Primary 3
14,600
Caterers engaged
Almost all women, one to a school
₦65
Per meal, per pupil
Food, fuel and the caterer's margin
₦18.2bn
Committed this year
Across 190 school days
What is served
The menu rotates on a five-day cycle and is set by nutrient content — a protein source every day, a source of iron and vitamin A at least three days in five. A caterer may substitute within a category for what the market has, but not across categories.
| Day | Main | Protein source | Accompaniment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Rice and stew | Beans or fish | Vegetables and fruit in season |
| Tuesday | Tuwo with soup | Meat or fish | Leafy vegetables |
| Wednesday | Beans and yam or potato | Beans, with egg where available | Vegetable stew, fruit |
| Thursday | Jollof rice or macaroni | Egg or fish | Vegetables, fruit in season |
| Friday | Danwake or koko with kosai | Beans and groundnut | Fruit in season |
Bought in Kano, cooked in the ward
A caterer buys from the market that serves the school and from farmers in the local government area, under a supply arrangement the programme brokers but does not run. Grain, beans, groundnut, vegetables, eggs and fish come from within the State wherever the season allows. What that does to a rural economy is not incidental: a school of 400 pupils in Primary 1 to Primary 3 puts a substantial sum through its local market every week of the term.
Cooking is done at or beside the school, in a kitchen the programme has built or upgraded, with covered storage, clean water and a serving area. The meal is served at the mid-morning break so that it does not shorten the teaching day. Utensils, the cooking pot and the serving plates are supplied and replaced by the programme.
- One caterer to a school, engaged from the community the school serves.
- Food bought within the local government area wherever the season allows.
- A built or upgraded kitchen with covered storage and clean water at each school.
- Served at the mid-morning break, so no teaching time is lost.
- Utensils and cooking equipment supplied and replaced by the programme.
How a caterer is engaged
Caterers are recruited from the community the school serves. There is no fee to apply and no payment to anybody at any stage of the process.
Apply at the local government education office
Applications open by local government area when places are available. The applicant must live in the community the school serves, be able to cook at scale, and have no other engagement under the programme.
Verification and a food hygiene check
The office verifies identity, residence and bank details, and a health officer carries out a food handler screening. Both are free.
Training before the first meal
Three days on the menu cycle, portion sizes, food hygiene, safe storage, record keeping and the reporting of an allergy or an illness. No caterer cooks before completing it.
Assignment to one school
A caterer cooks for one school and one school only. The number of pupils to be fed is taken from the school register and is reconciled each month against attendance.
Cook, serve and record
The daily record is signed by the head teacher: pupils served, menu cooked, any incident. The head teacher's signature is what triggers payment.
Payment monthly, by transfer
Paid into the caterer's own bank account, monthly, against the verified daily record. No cash passes through the school and no deduction of any kind is lawful.
How the programme is monitored
Feeding is the easiest programme in this section to defraud, so it carries the heaviest verification.
- A daily served-pupils record signed by the head teacher, reconciled monthly against the attendance register.
- Unannounced monitoring visits by the local government education office at meal time.
- A school-based management committee, on which parents sit, that may inspect the kitchen and the food at any time.
- Termly food hygiene inspection by a health officer, with the kitchen closed if it fails.
- Payment only ever by transfer into the caterer's own account, never in cash and never through an intermediary.
- A published per-pupil rate, so that anyone can check the arithmetic for a given school.
Nobody may charge for a meal, or for a place as a caterer
The meal is free to every pupil in Primary 1 to Primary 3 in a public primary school. No pupil may be asked for money, for a plate, for a cup or for a contribution towards fuel or water.
Nor may anyone charge a person to be engaged as a caterer, to be verified, to be trained or to be paid. A demand for a share of a caterer's payment is theft. Report either on +234 803 700 1420, at info@moe.kn.gov.ng, or at any local government education office.
Questions asked about the programme
Why only Primary 1 to Primary 3?
Does it cover private schools or Islamiyyah schools?
What if my child has an allergy?
The food at my child's school is poor or the portion is small. Who do I tell?
How is a caterer paid, and how much?
Is the food really bought locally?
How is the programme measured?
A meal a day, in every public primary school
Find a school, or report a problem with the food, the portions or a payment.