Ghana joins AU Member States to mark Africa day for school feeding

The Ghana School Feeding Programme and its partners yesterday marked the second edition of the Africa Day for School Feeding, under the theme “Home Grown School Feeding: Investment in Youth and Children for Harnessing the Demographic Dividend”

The Day was instituted by African Heads of State during the AU Summit held in January 2016, in recognition of the tremendous impact of home-grown school feeding on improving enrolment, retention and performance of children in school, as well as in boosting incomes and livelihoods of local communities.

School feeding is the world’s most widespread safety-net programme with more than 370 million children assisted through interventions in 131 countries.

In a press release signed by Alhaj Siba Alfa, Public Relations Officer of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, said since the pilot of the Programme in 2005, the number of children being fed daily has increased from 64,775 to 1,728,681 pupils spread across the 216 districts of Ghana and the number of schools is 4,988 currently.

“Government of Ghana plans to expand the programme to cover many more schools in the coming years. It is envisaged that in the near future all children in school in deprived communities would be covered under the programme”, he stated.

He said that the Ghana School Feeding Programme since its inception has contributed to increased school enrolment, attendance and retention in beneficiary schools. “Another key focus of the Ghana School Feeding Programme is to boost domestic food production. Government is therefore committed to stimulating local agricultural growth, by requesting caterers to buy and use foodstuff grown locally from local farmers. A draft Agricultural Model is being finalized for implementation”, he pointed out.

He said they acknowledge the immense contribution of the Ministries of Education, Health, Food and Agriculture, Local Government and Rural Development, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, and Development Partners such as such as WFP, SNV, UNICEF, PCD and Hershey to the success of the GSFP since its inception.

“We acknowledge that challenges such as delay in caterer payments and quality of food have affected the smooth implementation of the programme. Our focus this year will be to improve overall monitoring, food quality and feeding days in real time”, he added.

Touching on recent developments on the suspension of School Feeding in Ejura- Sekyedumase Municipal Assembly in Ashanti Region and Cocao Town in Western Region, Alhaj Siba Alfa urged all involved to stay calm and allow caterers to cook for the children, saying the Ministry is in touch with relevant authorities for amicable solution to the problems.

“Government in the meantime is in discussions to expand the programme to cover many more schools in deprived communities in the nearest future. Let us all join hands and allow peace to prevail for the Programme to achieve its main goal of poverty alleviation”, he stated.