90 pesewas can't feed your children – School Feeding Caterers protest

The Ashanti Region’s School Feeding Caterers, who had a verbal spat with the Regional Minister, has revealed that they have been cheated for far too long.

The irate women claim that their arrears have not been paid in full and are demanding answers as to why their funds are being deducted.

Mercy Ofosu, who led the women’s march on the regional ministry, stated, “I am speaking from the Asawase constituency.” We’re here for school feeding this morning. We have been cooking but have been paid in full. Our funds have been taken without our knowledge. We cooked even when the teachers went on strike. When it came time for them to pay us, they deducted some of the arrears. This is a form of deception.

This same issue led to our defeat during the tenure of former President John Agyekum Kufour. They kept taking money meant for school feeding, which enraged some people and led to our defeat. The same thing is happening again. We are performing exactly as expected, but we are being cheated.

“What we want to communicate to the government is that the work we are doing today is killing us,” said another caterer, Madam Yussif. Some of our members have been hospitalised. We are requesting an increase. There will be no cooking if there is no increment. We will not cook for the children if our arrears are not also paid.”

Another person stated. “The government told Ghanaians that the cost per head for a child had been raised from 90 pesewas to Ghc2, but we are still cooking with 90 pesewas per child after two years. So, was the increase just for show or was it meant to deceive us? We are asking our leaders to tell us how many of their children rely on 90 pesewas or even Ghc5 for food.”