Morocco Boosts School Meal Budget, but Students Still Poorly Fed

1.47 billion dirhams. This is the budget allocated to boarding schools and school canteens. A budget that has seen a significant increase this year. The objective here, according to Saïd Amzazi, Minister of National Education, is to "schedule a new meal and improve the quality of food for students, especially in the rural world". However, this increase in the budget has in no way made it possible to achieve the intended objective.

Indeed, despite the awareness-raising of the ministry’s services towards the establishments concerned on the importance of using this budget increase to take better care of the quality of food, to improve the weekly food program, as well as its diversification, we are witnessing unhealthy behaviors, reports Al Ahdath Al Maghribia.

The daily newspaper notes that the budget increase rather benefits lobbies who take advantage of it to increase food prices. A disconcerting example: "the regional academies had launched calls for tenders to choose the lowest bidder, but the bidders presented offers with inflated prices," denounces the same source, adding that this budget increase negatively impacts school feeding programs.

Furthermore, the same source denounces an astonishing fact. Thus, during an inspection in a boarding school in Casablanca, the inspectors discovered that the meals served to the students were rarely accompanied by meat. The newspaper concludes by stressing that "the food program consists only of chicken and eggs for a period that can reach two consecutive months". This is totally at odds with the vision of Minister Saïd Amzazi.