Call For Early Childhood Feeding Scheme in South Africa

Despite the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), government is failing to address malnutrition in children, GroundUp reports. More than one in four (27%) of South African children under the age of five are stunted and a recent South African Human Rights Commission report found that 116 children in the Eastern Cape province had died of severe malnutrition in the course of a year.

The problem is that there is no national feeding scheme for children before they enter formal schooling, says the Real Reform for Early Childhood Development campaign, which released a series of reports this month seeking to address the issue.

The NSNP was set up by the government to "address hunger, malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in learners". About 9.6 million learners are fed through this initiative on school days, according to the department's parliamentary presentation on May 16, 2023.