Scandal fraught school breakfast program resumes Tuesday

Santo Domingo.- The Education Ministry today announced it will resume the beleaguered school breakfast starting Tuesday morning with the exclusion of the dairy company Ladom, and 300,000 children who’ll not receive liquid food during two weeks.

Education minister Melanio Paredes also said they await the Treasury Ministry to disburse RD$500 million, to pay a debt pending with the breakfast suppliers this week.

He said nearly 1.4 million children will be served the food rations and that the 300,000 which won’t be given milk at first, will be supplied in two weeks.

The children who will not be served milk are in Barahona, San Juan and nearby zones of the Southwest, because the national milk producers cannot supply it immediately given that region’s drought and other factors.

Paredes added that the milk quotas supplied by Ladom was redistributed among the other dairies, until that company can resume operations again.

The school breakfast program has been rocked by scandals, including charges of sabotage after hundreds of children had to be hospitalized with food poisoning in different occasions.