The Lesotho government has taken over the school feeding programme resulting in less food

• Lesotho's government stepped in after US funding for school meals was cut, but GroundUp found pupils at two Semonkong primary schools are receiving smaller portions and less nutritious food.
• Delivery records show maize-meal supplied for lunch at St Leonard Primary has fallen by 54% per pupil, while cooking oil supplies have more than halved. Cooks are earning less and being paid late.
• The education ministry says it will investigate.
• Local farmers who supplied the previous programme say they have lost an important market.

GroundUp has found evidence that Lesotho's school feeding programme is offering smaller, less nutritious meals since the United States terminated its funding for the scheme last year.

After the cut in May 2025, Lesotho's education authorities promised to fill the gap. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Ratšiu Majara, gave a firm assurance when asked about the termination last year: "I guarantee that children in Semonkong, Thaba-Tseka and Mokhotlong will continue to get their meals."

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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) used to provide 36,000 children at more than 200 primary schools with daily nutritious meals. US$28.5-million (about M511-million; M1 = R1) was budgeted over five years to fund the Bokamoso Ba Bana feeding programme run by Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Earlier this month, Lesotho delegates told the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that the government now provides school feeding in all primary schools. The budget this year is more than M300-million.

Jubile Ntloana, the School Feeding Coordinator in the Ministry of Education, acknowledged to GroundUp that the budget is too small to cover the portion sizes recommended by nutritionists.

He said ministry studies found that feeding contractors should be paid M8 per child per day to cover food, transportation to schools and the payment of cooks. But contractors are currently receiving about M5.50 per child per day. As a result, portions to pupils were reduced. "For instance, maize meal was supposed to be 120g per child per day, but it is now 80g."

Since January, the government has contracted feeding to TJ General Dealer, which a 2021 investigation found had frequently failed to deliver enough food to schools.

We visited some of these schools in Semonkong last week. School officials and cooks at two schools said the quality, quantity and variety of food has changed. Wages have also shrunk, payments are delayed, and the number of cooks has decreased, they said.

Staff at Ha Samuel and St Leonard schools said the new programme provides a more limited diet. The previous corn soya blend (CSB) breakfast product is no longer available and has been replaced with maize porridge. Lunch is now pap and beans, without the leafy greens and eggs children used to get.

St Leonard's feeding manager Mantebe Konyana said their leftover CSB is running out. "Porridge made from maize-meal is not nutritious. The child eats maize-meal [for breakfast and lunch]. It has no nutritional strength for the child." She said they were promised sorghum for breakfast, but it was not provided.

However, Ntloana said the maize meal was fortified and nutritious, though he admitted CSB "is far more nutritious and has a much higher protein concentration".

At Ha Samuel, cook 'Mamotebang Tatolo said there was CSB left over from the CRS programme only until the winter holidays this year. Supply has reduced since the winter break, affecting food quality and leaving children hungry.

Tatolo said she was previously cooking 25kg of maize-meal for pap and about nine litres of beans for daily lunches. "But now I was told to reduce the quantities because the food supplies will only be replenished in October," she said. She now cooks five litres of beans and 20kg of maize-meal.

But Ntloana blamed cooks and teachers, saying they took supplies for themselves, forcing them to stretch ingredients when they run out early.

Less food and fewer cooks

Ntloana says the quantities delivered to schools are back to how they were before the USDA feeding programme started.

GroundUp has reviewed TJ General Dealer's delivery records to St Leonard, which show that less food is being supplied per pupil than under CRS.

For lunch, CRS supplied 2.8kg per pupil a month, while TJ is supplying 1.27kg. For breakfast, TJ supplies 1.95kg per pupil a month, while CRS supplied 4.32kg. And cooking oil supply has also fallen from about 150ml per pupil per month under CRS to about 67ml under TJ.

At St Leonard, there are now three cooks, down from four cooks and four assistants under CRS.

"Under CRS, they ate lunch at 11am; under TJ, they now eat between noon and 1pm as the work is too much for three people. Breakfast has also shifted from 7:45am to between 8am and 9am," said Konyana. Cooks are also earning less under TJ and have to buy firewood from their own salaries.

At Ha Samuel, Tatolo said her contract provides for M1,900 a month, down from the M3,200 earned by former cooks under CRS. She said she is consistently short paid by about M300.

"From this M1,600 I keep M1,000 and give M600 to my assistant, and from that M1,000, I still have to buy wood, dish soap and matches. I also had to buy containers to carry food to serving points."

Tatolo said her payment normally arrives between the 18th and 26th of the following month.

Ntloana said the ministry is partly responsible for late payments, but that he "recently spoke to [the contractors] about the need to pay their workers on time because delays are not acceptable."

A TJ General Dealer official, Pule Leboka, said TJ could not afford to provide both food and firewood, so responsibility for firewood was made the cooks' responsibility without additional payment.

'Mantina Mojakhomo lost her job as a cook at Ha Samuel Primary School when the CRS programme ended. A widow with five children, she said the M3,200 she earned a month helped meet her family's basic needs. She now relies on selling wool from her 28 sheep, receiving M8,000 once a year.

Impact on farmers

Mabafokeng Mothibi, who works with a cooperative which supplied 46 schools in Semonkong, said farmers struggled to find alternative buyers after the USDA programme closed.

One farmer, Molelejane Mohale, who had supplied vegetables since the project began in 2022, said the programme was an important market for small farmers.

"Every week they would buy 100 heads of cabbage at M10 to M12, depending on its size. They would also buy mustard spinach and rape, ranging from 50 to 100 bundles at M8 each, every week."

Mohale said he planted according to the project's demand and farmed one hectare but reduced production to half a hectare after the programme closed, hoping it would return.