SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME A GOOD INITIATIVE BUT LACKS SUSTAINABILITY AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK TO SUPPORT PRODUCTION BASED INITIATIVE
Lusaka, 20-03-2026.
The National Democratic Congress, NDC, Party supports every effort and initiatives that puts food in a learner’s stomach; hunger has no place in a classroom.
The UPND government school-feeding program is a good-hearted initiative, progressive and we acknowledge the children now receiving meals they would otherwise miss at home. But goodwill is not a plan. It lasts for a short while, and government should not embark or focus on programs that lack sustainability, if we are to fight zero hunger as a country by 2030 and beyond.
We are concerned by what we see today, pots and maize delivered from Lusaka without a legal framework, without budget ring-fencing and without school driven ownership production.
This is a moment to reflect and work together as a nation to develop a mechanism for sustainability for our children.
The school feeding program in its current form is like climbing a mountain on a bicycle with no chain: energy expended, motion promised, progress and sustainability unlikely.
Fellow citizens, some of the sustainability questions we cannot dodge are:
-When political winds shift, do the pots and spoons disappear?
-Are we teaching learners to wait for handouts rather than to grow, harvest, and manage?
-Who will pay for food when donor trucks stall and central allocations shrink?
As NDC, we propose a shift from feeding to food sovereignty in schools:
-implement a Legal & budget based program. Pass a School Feeding and Production Act that earmarks land, water rights, and a modest annual grant for each school garden/livestock project for food security and income.
-Empower schools to produce food like vegetables, poultry, fish all tied to agriculture classes; surplus sold to a revolving fund for seed and feed.
Let schools feel the ownership through production and accountability and not only ministerial level.
We do not oppose feeding children today; we oppose building tomorrow’s hunger on today’s populists ideas and initiatives.
The UPND government should focus now from a distribution program to a production platform, one that survives beyond any single party’s term and earns respect through lasting, home-grown solutions.
Let us fight hunger with hoes and let the measure be a school in Mongu feeding itself in 2030 without a memo from Cabinet.
Issued by;
Saboi Imboela
President- National Democratic Congress- NDC