Abstract
This study focused on food vendors’ views on Home Grown School
Feeding Programme (HGSFP) for public primary school children in Ebonyi
State, Nigeria. Specifically, it determined types of food provided for school
children; meal preparation and, hygiene practices observed by food
vendors of the HGSFP, and factors militating against HGSFP. It used
survey research design. Population was made up of 1435 food vendors.
Questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using
frequencies and percentages. Findings show nine types of food provided
for the children, top among them were rice 333(100%), and beans porridge
314(94.4) while the least provided food were eggs 197(59.3%), fruits
123(37.0%), and meat. Majority of the food vendors (77.8%) used healthy
cooking methods such as steaming, broiling, grilling, and roasting and
washed all fruits and vegetables before serving 290(87.0%). Majority
259(77.8%) do not wash hands, and cooking surfaces often using hot soapy
water, before handling the cooking utensils and food, there were no proper
screening and handling of food before meal preparation as revealed by
most of them 290(87.0%) and no medical report was requested for before
recruitment 321(96.3%). Challenges encountered include insufficient
government monitoring of activities 173(51.9%), insufficient funding
79(79.6%), among others. Five recommendations for improving HGSFP
were made.