SHS Feeding Crisis: Mahama directs release of stored food to schools

President John Mahama has hinted that food items initially stored in warehouses to address drought situations will be released to second-cycle schools to tackle the food shortage.

The president, who described the feeding challenge as an “emergency,” said it was important that the food items be diverted to the schools amid concerns about depleted stocks raised by key stakeholders, including the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).

It will be recalled that CHASS, an association of headmasters and principals of public high schools, urged parents and guardians to provide their wards with food supplies amid the feeding crisis in schools.

“I encourage parents, and I have already advised my PTA to this effect, to let their children bring food like gari, shito, and sugar to supplement whatever the school provides," the association’s National Secretary, Primus Baro, said on Joy News last week. “I urge parents across the country, as the food situation has still not improved over the past two to three years, and it has worsened at this particular time.”

However, addressing the development at the National Prayer and Thanksgiving Service in Accra, President Mahama pledged the government’s efforts to address the challenge in the short term.

“As we speak, we currently have a challenge with feeding students in secondary schools, as the Ghana Education Service insisted that schools must reopen on the 3rd of January, contrary to CHASS’s advice. As a stopgap measure, I’ve asked the Chief of Staff to work with GES to allocate and evaluate food that is currently held in warehouses in Tema.

“This food was imported by the previous government in response to the drought that occurred last year, but in this emergency, we need to use some of that food to feed our students so that education can continue,” he said to applause.