At the inception of the present government in the state of Osun in November 2010, it undertook a comprehensive review of its school feeding programme inherited from the previous administration and came up with an overhauled and rebranded programme that was officially launched on 30th April, 2012.
The Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme now known as O-MEALS is the template upon which the President Muhammudu Buhari’s Federal Government has initiated its own national school feeding programme.
However, these ten (10) facts about the state of Osun’s school feeding programme will completely amaze you.
1. The O’Meals programme currently feeds 254,000 school children in the state of Osun, the longest running in the country.
2. O’Meals currently employs 3,007 caterers, and indirectly employs 7,057 people.
3. 12.7million naira is spent daily to feed all school children for 200 school days in a year. 12billion naira has been spent so far since 2012.
4. 900 cocoyam farmers, 700 small poultry farmers, 310 catfish farmers, 63 cow markets currently benefit from the O’Meals initiative.
5. School enrollment increased from 155,318 pupils at inception to 252,739, representing a 62% increment in enrollment.
6. 8,400 crates of eggs are consumed weekly, 336,000 crates are consumed annually and 1,344,000 crates of eggs have been consumed in four years.
7. 10 metric tonnes of fish is consumed weekly; 400 tonnes of fish is consumed annually, while 1,600 metric tonnes of fish have been consumed by pupils in 4 years.
8. 35 heads of cows are slaughtered for consumption per week, 1,400 heads of cows are slaughtered for consumption annually, while 5,600 heads of cows have been slaughtered for consumption in 4 years.
9. 15,000 birds are consumed per week, and 600,000 birds are consumed annually by the pupils. 2,400,000 birds have been consumed in 4 years.
10. 0’Meals is the longest running Government scheme of its kind in Nigeria, So far , 202,234,400 hot meals have been served in the last four years.