Group promotes healthy eating among children

A project to aggressively promote healthy eating among children in the Asante-Akim South District has been launched at Juaso.

It involves encouraging and helping parents and caterers of Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) to feed kids with wholesome foods, containing the right nutrients and minerals, both at home and school.

The project, the initiative of London-based international NGO, Partnership for Child Development (PCD), is being implemented by the Rural Development College (RDC), with funding by Dubai CARES.

As part of this, a two day training workshop had been organized for volunteers drawn from all the 28 communities in the district, benefitting from the school feeding programme.

The aim was to build their capacity and aid them to have better understanding of balanced diet, healthy eating, hygiene and report writing.

The volunteers would engage key stakeholders including parents, caterers, teachers, chiefs and religious bodies on proper ways of feeding children.

Mr. Ebenezer Bright Wuaku, the Project Coordinator, said the goal is to help ensure healthy growth of children.

It comes on the back of a research, which shows that there were no varieties in the food served to children under the GSFP, he said.

He underscored the need for parents to show particular interest in the kind of food their children ate in order to prevent stunted growth.

The Coordinator said the expectation was that each volunteer would visit at least 30 households and 10 groups every month.

Mr. John Amuzu, Director of the RDC, spoke of the need for children to be fed with a variety of food, rich in both macro and micro nutrients.

“A school child’s physical growth develops at a steady pace, so a well-balanced diet is needed to support the growing body,” he added.

Mr. Isaac Obeng Aboagye, the Coordinator of the GSFP in the district welcomed the project and said it would help improve service delivery by caterers under the GSFP.