Schools hit with Unga shortage, change meal plans
What you need to know:
- School managers have appealed to the government to consider procuring subsided food items to ensure smooth learning in the institutions.
- At the United Methodist Mission School, rice and beans is now a common meal on the menu of the over 500 students. An alternative to beans is green grams.
Learning institutions have been forced to alter their meal plans and find alternatives owing to the high food prices, especially maize flour.
Schools have now opted for rice and other cereals to cope with the challenge.
Other learning institutions have been forced to turn to other kitties to purchase food after their food budgets got strained.
School managers, however, have appealed to the government to consider procuring subsided food items to ensure smooth learning in the institutions.
They say unlike in the past when the government used to chip in and give relief food to schools, their institutions, now, have to find their own ways of sustaining students, especially with strict regulations on school fees by the Ministry.
HIGH PRICES
At the United Methodist Mission School, rice and beans is now a common meal on the menu of the over 500 students. An alternative to beans is green grams.
The school bursar, Rachel Maina, said the school purchases cereals from open markets where the prices are now high, a part from that of rice.
A 50 kg of rice retails at Sh3,900 compared to a Sh90 kg of maize which goes for Sh4,900, up from Sh3,500 in December last year. A 90 kilogram bag of beans is on the other hand sold at between Sh6, 800 and Sh7, 700.
Mona Secondary School with a population of 220 students has not been spared either, resorting to serving ugali just once a week. Rice and a mixture of beans and maize (githeri) are the dominant meals on the school’s menu.
The school principal Francis Maina said the management informed students and parents of the challenge.
CAN’T COPE
Mr Maina said although the school had procured most of the foodstuffs at the beginning of the term, there is fear that it might not last up to the closure of schools in August.
At the Nakuru Gk prison, the situation is no different.
The officer in charge James Sawo says the correctional facility depends on supplies from contractors who can longer cope with the high prices at the moment.
“Although it is the duty of the contractors to supply to us, the effects of the shooting prices are felt everywhere and they are not an exception,” he said.
He said the terms of supply have not been changed and contractors are already complaining.
An increase in prices will require consultation and evaluation before any adjustments are made.
