Zero Hunger Trust Fund officially commences

The ‘Adopt a Classroom’ programme, which was officially launched on July 29, signals the official start of the Zero Hunger Trust Fund.

Minister of Economic Planning Camillo Gonsalves said July 29 was a happy day for his ministry, as it was able to roll out the first programme of the Zero Hunger Trust Fund.{{more}}

Addressing parents and children at the symbolic handing over ceremony of cash grants, held at Foreign Affairs conference room, Minister Gonsalves said he wanted to remind people of Prime Minister Gonsalves’ promise during the election campaign of his plans to eradicate hunger by the year 2020 and to ensure that no Vincentian went to bed hungry at nights.

He stated that because of that promise, Cabinet took a decision to establish the Zero Hunger Trust Fund, which will design programmes to meet this goal.

“And this trust fund that we created and we passed a law to create it, and there is a board, we created this body that is going to spearhead this effort in St Vincent and the Grenadines to make sure nobody goes to bed hungry at nights, the zero hunger Trust Fund.”

Minister Gonsalves, who also has the portfolio of Sustainable Development, said one of the things the law does is adding a “little tax” on cell phone calls; “Every time you make a call, some of that money is diverted to the Zero Hunger Trust Fund, and we use that money to fulfill the promise that the Prime Minister made,” he explained.

He said when they started looking at zero hunger, a lot of people thought that the government was just going to come and get a whole set of food and give it to people, “but you know what they say if you teach a man to fish, it is a lot better than giving him a fish.”

He said it was decided that there would be within the zero hunger trust fund a whole set of different programmes to deal with poverty, hunger and skills training, “because if you deal with poverty, you dealing with hunger.”

They have targeted programmes, looked at the number of people who are indigent in St Vincent and the Grenadines, “somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3,000 people.

He said officials looked at data to see where there were larger incidences of poverty and North Leeward and Windward, among other areas, were identified as areas where government needed to focus on.

“A lot of these areas are areas the Government is trying to rapidly lift out of poverty.

“This programme will deal with fees that are necessary, registration and the like; pay for books for students, buy a book bag, provide the resources for you to pay for the uniform and the shoes and improved nutrition options,” outlined the Minister.

He disclosed that a reading specialist would be attached to the programme to ensure that the children in these early years come out of kindergarten as good readers “because reading is fundamental to your later progress educationally.”

Seven primary schools from the areas of Sandy Bay, Fancy, Fair Hall, Chateaubelair and Barrouallie have been selected.(API)