WFP lauds Ghana’s School Feeding Programme

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday lauded Ghana’s School Feeding Programme, describing it as one of the few home grown ones in the world.

The WFP said it provides technical support to the Ghana School Feeding Programme, including monitoring, evaluation and policy development assistance.

Madam Vera Boahene, Public Information Officer of the WFP made the disclosure during a media encounter with some United Nations Agencies in Accra.

She said WFP provides take-home food rations for girls, giving families additional incentive to send their girls to school in areas where attendance is low.

Some 30,000 girls from 521 junior high schools in the Northern Region and the northern part of the Volta Region are currently benefiting from the programme.

She said the WFP is assisting government to serve daily cooked meals to 150,000 primary school children, increasing enrolment and improving concentration among students in the deprived areas of northern Ghana.

She noted that in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service, a scholarship programme has also been instituted to help bright but financially-needy girls who graduate from WFP-assisted junior high schools to complete their secondary education.

She said the WFP provides nutritious food supplements to pregnant and nursing women and chronically malnourished children under the age of two.

She said the critical window of opportunity for the child is the first 1000 days of his or her life, in which it has to be well fed and nurtured for.

Ms Cynthia Prah, National Information Officer of the United Nations Information Centre in Ghana urged journalists to take up the issue of nutrition in nursing and expectant mothers, as well as children very seriously.