KUALA LUMPUR: More than 4,000 primary school pupils across the nation enjoyed a free breakfast today in the first phase of expansion for the Supplementary Food Programme (RMT).
The meals were given to eligible to students from families living under the National Poverty Line. The programme has now been extended to 100 primary schools natiwonwide.
Other improvements made in the expansion was the time of the free breakfast distributed in schools, which was synchronized to breakfast time between 7am to 7.30am.
According to the Education Department director-general Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, the programme was looking to help shape good eating habits among pupils, and to monitor their nutritional intake before starting their class every morning.
“Previously, the food distribution takes place during their recess. However, through this expansion, we decided to synchronize the timing to breakfast time.
“The idea behind this new improvement is to ensure our schoolchildren are well-fed with a nutritional breakfast before they start their class every day. We want to teach them that breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day,” she said during a press conference at the launch of the free breakfast programme at SK Seri Suria today.
“We worked closely with the Health Ministry in determining what is the best diets for pupils, and to ensure that they are served with proper food that fufils their dietary and calories intake, based on their growth.
“From those efforts, we have come up with over 20 menus, which will be prepared by the school canteens. So, the pupils get to eat a variety of food instead of just one meal during their semester,” she said.
Asked on how do pupils qualify to receive the free meals, Habibah said the participants were chosen based on their family's monthly incomes.
“Previously, we focused on pupils from the hardcore poor families to participate in this programme.
“However, through the expansion of the RMT, we are now including more pupils from poor families and those who are living under the National Poverty Line, which are those who earn less than RM980 per month and live in the Hardcore Poor Housing Project (PPRT).”
When citing pupils from SK Seri Suria She, she said almost 90 per cent of RMT participants from the school lived in the nearby PPRT.
“With the expansion of the RMT programme, we estimate that about 517,000 primary school pupils nationwide are now participating in this programme.
“Besides providing free breakfast for pupils in need, the programme will hopefully teach participants about proper eating etiquette.
“There will be teachers in charge to oversee them redeeming and eating their free breakfast. And this is to ensure that no food will go to waste.
“And besides, we wanted them to also learn the proper way of eating etiquette, such as taking precautions into washing their hands before they eat, or the civic lessons on how to dispose their food packs properly.
“We also named each and every one of the food packages according to its recipient. This is to track who has and has not redeemed their food in the morning. Pupils who did not redeem their meals at breakfast time can do so during recess,” said Habibah.