Education
Fairness Questioned, School Lunch Program should be for Every Child
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, January 23, 2023 – As the cost of living crisis affects families at all levels across the Turks and Caicos, Magnetic Media has asked the question of officials: what is being put in place for families above the poverty line who need help as well.
The query follows the Government announced school feeding program aimed at providing support for the lowest income earners, a part of a suite of revolutionary legislative initiatives which will accompany the change to minimum wage from $6.25 per hour to up to $9 per hour as of April 1st, 2023.
The cost of the program, which also creates free daycare and free after school care is attracting a $4 million dollar price tag, informed Rachel Taylor, Minister of Education, Youth, Sports and Special Needs.
The feeding program, earmarked for a September 2023 start, will introduce the certainty of at least one meal a day for students who meet the criteria helping provide them with a nutritious lunch and easing the burden on parents.
But does this limited focus exclude families who, while being higher earners, have also found living historically more expensive?
Groceries in The Turks and Caicos went up 38 percent in 2022; an almost unfathomable increase which all families have had to bear. The Government stepped in to help with a freeze on duties for bread basket items, evening extending it but that tax exemption excludes many of the lunch-leaning foods that children favor.
A dent in grocery bills thanks to guaranteed lunches would help all families, including those above the poverty line with multiple children.
Our media house reached out to government members to get an explanation of the rationale behind the program and former in the Ministry of Education, Wesley Clerveaux, who is now moved as the Permanent Secretary of Tourism explained there was nothing blocking families from being on the program and they should apply if they need the help.
“Funding was provided to support the majority of the student population in the assumption that there will be a small percentage of students that may not register to participate,” he said.
The MOE has not yet announced an application process, in particular only maintaining that teachers would look out for students who did not have a healthy meal.
The situation is the same with the daycare plan, while Turks and Caicos islanders will benefit expatriate workers, who make up the majority of the workforce, are not included as beneficiaries of the government plan.