Ghana Chefs provide meals for coronavirus frontline staff

The Chefs’ Association of Ghana has provided 2,000 packs of meals to the frontline staff and security personnel deployed to ensure compliance of the 14-day restrictions on movement to curb the spread of COVID-19.

It also provided additional 1,000 for the vulnerable, including truck pushers and head porters also known as “Kayayei,” to help cushion them as they stayed indoors during the two-week lockdown.

Madam Barbara Oteng Gyasi, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture also presented cash and items to the tune of GH¢100,000.00 to support the initiative.

Among the items were bags of rice, cooking oil and tomato paste to assist in what she termed as a laudable initiative.

She said due to the lockdown, personnel and vulnerable may not have access to food thus, there was the need to support the Group as a mother body to help distribute food to all the target groups.

The Minister said funds would be raised to enable them to extend the initiative to other parts of the country and especially, to the vulnerable to prevent deaths as a result of hunger as Ghana fought COVID-19.

She praised the members of the Association for sticking to the directives, which had led to a great loss to the industry, yet, they had reached out to those in need.

Madam Oteng Gyasi also commended the sectors under her Ministry for doing everything possible to combat COVID-19, citing the Musician Association to compose songs to educate the public.

Mr Isaac Sackey, President of the Association, said the gesture, which is on the “Cook to save lives,” initiative would continue to supply health officials and security agencies with meals in Accra during the period.

He explained that the initiative was as a result of deaths due to starvation among security personnel in Spain during their lockdown, adding that no Ghanaian personnel should die from hunger as the Nation fought COVID-19.

Currently, they can provide 2,000 packs of meals each day for both the health and security officials, he added.

Chef Sackey called on well-meaning Ghanaians to support the cause to provide meals to all the frontliners and security personnel throughout the Country.

He said there were 120 chefs: from hotels, restaurants and catering services on standby to prepare a balanced diet for more than 10,000 personnel in a day that would boost their immune system, provided they got enough sponsorship.

Superintendent Freeman Tettey of the Joint Operations Centre, Ghana Police Service, thanked the benefactors for their thoughtfulness and said it had boosted the morale of the security agencies as they contributed in fighting the pandemic.

He reiterated the call on the public to abide by the directives, saying, the two-week exercise was not typical law enforcement, but a humanitarian one.

Superintendent Tettey advised the citizenry circulating fake videos about the service to desist from that as it was undermining the security services.

Mr Kwasi Agyemang, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, urged the members of the hospitality industry to continue to observe the directives as it would preserve the health of all the citizens.