Unpaid School Feeding caterers to be settled by Monday – Gender Minister-designate

The consistent demonstrations embarked on by displeased school feeding caterers may be a thing of the past considering the assurance from Gender Minister-designate, Cynthia Morrison that the ‘last cedi’ owed any caterer will be duly settled by Monday October 29, 2018.

The school feeding program since its implementation, has been faced with funding challenges, prompting threats from caterers overtime. The caterers who had not been paid for months besieged the premises of the Gender Ministry on various occasions, to register their grievances and to demand monies owed them.

Addressing the issue during her vetting Friday October 26, Mrs. Morrison indicated that all monies have been released for the payment of these caterers. Payments she said, are currently underway and will be finalized by Monday.

“I can assure you, sitting here, that the president is a listening president. He has advised that every money be paid. As I sit here, every money has been released. Monday, everybody is getting the last cedi and so we are going to continue. I am very passionate about it also, I go to the market and I know how expensive it is to buy things and then they come and cook and nobody pays them for almost 3 or 4 months. We are working on it, so be rest assured that your women who are cooking for your schools are going to be paid for by Monday”, she said, in response to a question posed to her by Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu.

The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) was implemented in 2005 in the context of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) Pillar III and in response to the first and second Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving universal primary education.

The GSFP is a continuing investment that nourishes children and decreases food insecurity while contributing to the achievement of the first four SDGs.

The program further creates the opportunity to bring both girls and boys into school by ensuring that they are free from hunger to enable them to concentrate and focus on learning which critical steps in the education process are.