No fewer than 32 cooks selected from across the sixteen local governments of Kwara state on Tuesday underwent training ahead of the takeoff of the school feeding programme in the state.

The training was organised by the National Documentation and Training of Cooks on the National Home-Grown Feeding Programme under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management and Social Development.

The Area Manager of the Ilorin Office of the Industrial Training Fund, Temitayo Quadri, told reporters, “Two trainees are selected from each local government area of Kwara State, so we are training 32 persons.

“We expect them to put in their best in whatever they do, and to develop themselves more and not to limit themselves to what they do now.”

Quadri urged the participants to always cook with the torch of professionalism, passion and under good hygiene that could help the health of the children, through the inclusion of the six components of balanced diets.

“It is a programme for the National School Feeding Programme that is facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, and the Industrial Training Fund has been chosen as one of the centres to train the trainees for the cooking programme.

“The participants have gone through training in the past but we actually want something better that will have an impact on them on how to cook with good hygiene and other areas that we think will benefit the children,” Quadri explained.

She encouraged the cooks not to relent on their efforts and to allow their work to speak for them anywhere they are.

Some of the participants expressed satisfaction with the training, saying the capacity building would equip them with methods of cooking under hygienic conditions in the interest of school children.

Zainab Aliu from Patigi Local Government said, “We have learnt a lot about personal hygiene and how to prepare foods in the best way for the children. We have to take care of food items and everything we use to make a good balanced diet for children.”

“It is a good programme. I gained a lot from it. There are a lot of benefits in the programme,” she added.

Omotope Babatunde from Irepodun LGA said she found the training beneficial especially on how best to prepare food for school children, adding that they were told that the exercise would take off soon.