THE quality and adequacy of meals provided to students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) has come under scrutiny.

In Parliament on Friday, St James West Central Member of Parliament (MP) Marlene Malahoo Forte raised concerns that the lunch allocation may not provide a full, nutritious meal, as she called for greater focus on how the school-feeding component of the programme is funded and monitored.

The Government MP zeroed in on the issue during the Standing Finance Committee’s examination of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, using the debate to question not only how the lunch support is calculated, but also whether enough attention is being paid to the nutritional value of what children on PATH are receiving in schools.

Malahoo Forte said the concern was coming directly from schools in her constituency, where administrators had suggested that the per-day allocation available for PATH students is not enough to cover a proper meal.

“The information I have from the schools in my St James West Central constituency is that the per diem allocation is not sufficient to afford them a full meal for the day. I don’t know if it is true, but that is what I am told, and so I’m wondering, how is the sum arrived at?” Malahoo Forte said.

Her intervention went beyond the size of the allowance itself. She also pressed for clarity on who is responsible for ensuring that children on PATH are receiving meals with real nutritional value, rather than simply food on paper.

“Madam Chairman, I really want to know, on behalf of the constituents, how is the sum arrived at and what consideration is given to the nutritional content of the meals? Who monitors and where in the budgeted programmes [do] we have the cost for that work?” she asked.

PATH is one of Jamaica’s social protection programmes for low-income households, offering cash support and related benefits tied to education and health. One element of that support involves students in the programme receiving assistance connected to school feeding, but Friday’s exchange exposed how responsibility for that support is spread across ministries.

Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr said the concerns had been heard, but made clear that the school feeding side of the programme does not sit within his ministry’s direct remit. According to him, his ministry supplies the list of PATH students while the Ministry of Education handles the feeding arrangements and the formulas behind them.

Committee Chair Juliet Holness suggested the problem may be bigger than any one ministry, arguing that the arrangement appears split across the labour and social security, education, and finance ministries, without a single point of accountability to determine whether public money is translating into proper support for children.

She suggested that an audit of the programme may need to be done to ensure that PATH is fulfilling its mandate effectively.

“Let me give an example: If a billion dollars is used for the year for the school-feeding programme, are the children really getting the meals? Are the bills for the PATH feeding programme — for rice and chicken and the juice — that they actually get at that level for other benefits, is the same? So I’ll put it to the Ministry of Finance that, ultimately, the three ministries, which would include education for students, but others for other benefits provided by labour and social security, as raised by Member Malahoo Forte, would need to make sure that there is some audit and analysis done to determine if value for money is being received,” she said.

Charles Jr responded that the Government is already reviewing PATH more broadly, and said the Administration accepts that there are weaknesses which still need to be addressed.

“We acknowledge the issues, and we have implemented a review which is comprehensive. There has been some delay — based on we know what has happened in the last two years with two hurricanes — but we continue to press ahead because we know the challenges that families face, that students face, that are relating to power. And we collaborate with all of the relevant ministries; even outside of the Ministry of Finance and [Ministry of] Education there’s the Ministry of Health that we also collaborate with to make sure that we can design a programme that is sufficient, that is efficient, and that is effective and responsive in achieving its goal,” he said.

The concern raised by Malahoo Forte was especially notable because the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information appeared before the same committee later on Friday, yet the matter of the PATH school-feeding allocation was not raised during that session despite Charles having indicated that operational responsibility rests with that ministry.

The exchange also went into a broader concern about access to social support after Hurricane Melissa, with Malahoo Forte warning that vulnerable Jamaicans now depend even more heavily on the State.

“But I believe that there are some concerns, and I know the minister and his team are well-intentioned but systems require more to work effectively. And we’re now in the aftermath of a hurricane that has devastated many lives and livelihoods and so the reliance on the State is even greater for those beneficiaries, and we would do an injustice to the people if we do not minimise their woes, minimise the bureaucracy, and maximise the benefit,” said Malahoo Forte.