OSOGBO – Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori, the Deputy Governor of Osun State, says the state’s school feeding scheme, tagged O’ Meal, is part of government’s people-oriented programmes geared towards leveraging the economy.
The deputy governor stated this while receiving a UNICEF delegation in her office on Thursday in Osogbo.
She said that the pupils involved in the scheme consumed more than 300,000 fishes, 10,000 crates of eggs, appreciable amount of quality vegetables with seasonal fruits on a weekly basis.
Laoye-Tomori said the programme had led to the empowerment of 52 youths for fish growing business, 3,007 caterers and some farmers involved in food production.
She also said that no fewer than 40,000 youths had been employed through the Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme.
The deputy governor said the state government had also employed more than 10,000 teachers, and engaged 3,000 others in O’ Garment scheme.
She solicited UNICEF’s partnership to help sustain the programmes, especially the O’ Meal.
Ms Jean Gough, the UNICEF Country Representative, said her team had earlier visited some elementary schools and inspected some projects to confirm government’s claims.
Gough described the state government’s achievements as tremendous.
According to her, UNICEF is willing to work with the state government to promote people-oriented programmes such as the O’ Meal with a view to impacting positively on the lives of more children. (NAN)