The Chief Executive Officer of the National Food Buffer Stock, Abdul-Wahab Hanan Aludiba has said that his office is in a comfortable lead in providing food for second-year Senior High School (SHS) students who will be going back to school in October.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his last address to the country indicated that Second Year SHS students will report to their schools to complete the academic year.
The students are expected to stay in school for ten weeks after which they will break and get back to schools in January 2021.
Speaking on Asaase Radio monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the CEO for the National Food Buffer Stock Company which is responsible for providing food for Senior High Schools said his outfit will begin distribution of food across the country two weeks before reopening.
According to him, they planned for the reopening before the outbreak of COVID-19 adding that they have excess stock of food to feed the Senior High School students.
“We are in a comfortable lead because we’ve planned, we’ve budgeted for all these food items prior to COVID so what this means is that all the stocks are there and we are trying to make sure that two weeks to the reopening for the Second years of the Senior High School. What we do is that we send the food before the students report. In that angle, we are good to go and there’s not much problems.”
He said, unlike previous years when Senior High Schools could close down due to the unavailability of food, the situation has changed.
“I’m sure you’re aware that ever since National Food Bufferstock company took over the challenge or the opportunity of supplying or taking care of the feeding component of the Free Senior High School, there’s never been an issue of lack of food or schools have shut down because of lack of food as we used to hear from the past or there’s been some form of agitation of poor food being supplied by the buffer stock.”
On the safety of food distributed to the Senior High School across the country, he said the organization has introduced the Food Safety department that checks the quality of food before it is sent to the various schools unlike previously when the schools were tasked with purchasing their own food.