Clement Adeyi, Osogbo
Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, yesterday inaugurated 2,210 newly-recruited food vendors to boost the home-grown school feeding programme initiative.
The governor also distributed cooking utensils, uniforms, feeding bowls among other materials to the new school food vendors to ease their services.
The caterers were recruited under the Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme (O’MEALS) as part of the government efforts to promote quality, functional and qualitative education, and to make education more attractive and appealing to the pupils in the state.
The recruitment of the food vendors across the 30 local government areas and one area office was an initiative conceived by the government to augment parents’ care-giving efforts and essentially to produce children who are “physically and mentally balanced.”
At the flag-off ceremony in Osogbo, the state capital yesterday, Oyetola said his administration was giving a boost to the O’MEALS initiative by empowering the food vendors to deliver service in a professional, efficient and effective manner.
The governor thanked the O’MEALS management for putting in place a transparent procedure to select the food vendors, noting that the government is empowering the vendors by procuring cooking utensils and other materials through a soft loan from the bank.
Oyetola disclosed that the bank loan will be repaid by the state government in order not to put any burden on the vendors, noting that the welfare of all food vendors in the state is paramount to his administration.