---
title: "Meduca Keeps School Snack Program Going with Extended Contracts and Leftover Supplies"
date: 2026-03-19
modified: 2026-03-20
author: ""
url: https://panamadaily.news/meduca-contracts-remnants-school-meals/
categories:
  - "Economy"
  - "News"
  - "Politics"
tags:
  - "Anpafa"
  - "Bocas del Toro"
  - "MEDUCA"
  - "merienda escolar"
  - "procurement"
  - "school feeding"
---

# Meduca Keeps School Snack Program Going with Extended Contracts and Leftover Supplies

## What Happened

Panama’s Ministry of Education (Meduca) says it has maintained parts of the national school snack program at the start of the academic year by extending existing contracts and using leftover supplies, after delays in new procurement processes. Some official schools have already received semi-skimmed milk in the first weeks of classes, supplied from extended agreements and remnant stock from last year.

Gilda Montenegro, Meduca’s national director of Nutrition and School Health, reported that in the Bocas del Toro education region semi-skimmed milk has been distributed to 54 schools since March 9 under an extension of the 2024–2025 contract. That contract extension is covering 21,115 students in the region.

Meduca also confirmed there are remaining five-pound containers of nutritional cream from last year being used in schools in the Chiriquí, Coclé, Darién and Los Santos regions. The cream will continue to be distributed in those areas until the stock is exhausted.

## Licitations under way

Meduca currently has three public tenders in progress to supply milk, cookies and nutritional cream for the school snack program, with a combined reference amount exceeding US$29.6 million and intended to benefit 877 educational centers this school year.

The most advanced tender is for fortified semi-skimmed milk, with a reference price of US$16.5 million; that process already has a recommendation for award and would reach more than 247,000 students across 879 centers if finalized. Parallel tenders for improved cookies and for nutritional cream — the latter aimed at hard-to-reach areas — have received proposals and remain in evaluation by designated committees. Meduca said there is no set date yet for awards or distribution start dates.

Authorities emphasized that the procedures must follow Law 22 on public procurement, including periods for observations, claims and appeals, and final endorsement by the Comptroller General of the Republic. The Directorate General of Public Procurement has reported there are no pending formalities attributable to the agency and that processes are moving within legally established timelines.

## Background

The reliance on contract extensions and leftover stock comes amid criticism from parent groups about planning and continuity. Ariel Hughes, president of the National Association of Parents (Anpafa), warned that delays, remnant use and unequal distribution point to structural problems in Meduca’s management of the Complementary School Feeding Program. He said these weaknesses risk interrupting an essential service for thousands of students and linked the issue to broader educational challenges such as infrastructure deterioration, access difficulties and inefficient purchasing processes.

## What This Means

In the short term, extended contracts and remnant supplies allow Meduca to keep portions of the feeding program operating while the three large tenders are finalized. However, parent representatives are calling for measures to secure continuity — including tender schedules aligned with the school year, multi-year contracts, greater transparency in public purchases and real-time audits — to prevent future disruptions that could affect student nutrition and school retention.