Ensuring the continuation of school feeding programmes during COVID-19 Pandemic : a case of “New Normal” management

Abstract

The issue of school feeding is placed at the top of global agenda currently more than ever before. Challenges imposed by COVID-19 have created an opportunity to broaden and deepen debates focusing around the significance of school feeding programmes internationally. Throughout the duration of the lockdown period, billions of learners worldwide were no longer receiving school meals regularly, thus negatively impacting their health and wellbeing. The aims of this paper were to highlight: challenges that school leaders were faced with, in ensuring that learners were fed during the pandemic and the type of management that would enable them to continue feeding learners even during the crisis. The “new normal” management emerged as three modalities that were introduced by the Department of Basic Education and were implemented to ensure continuity of school feeding. The adaptive and situational leadership approach seemed to be more suitable, as the traditional way of managing was no longer adequate in meeting the demands of feeding learners in a crisis situation.