Stakeholders: Improve School Feeding Programme

Stakeholders, including caterers, farmers, nutritionists and educationists have appealed to the government to improve and strengthen the School Feeding Programme (SFP) to enable it to achieve its objectives.

The stakeholders made the appeal at a day’s forum organized by the Programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), in Koforidua on Thursday.

The forum was aimed at collating views of stakeholders for the drafting of a national SFP policy, to address challenges associated with the NSFP.

The stakeholders asked the government to construct boreholes and build kitchens at the various schools, to enable caterers of the NSFP to prepare food under hygienic conditions.

The caterers expressed worry about the high prices of local food items, especially rice, which the programme aims to promote.

Addressing the forum, Mrs Victoria Kuma-Mintah, Deputy National Coordinator in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation of the SFP, said the proposed seeks to improve the Programme by providing a framework to link the SFP with local agricultural production.

Mr Mohammed Ahmed Baba Jamal, Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, asked the stakeholders to remain committed to the SFP since the government was doing its best to tackle the challenges associated with it.

In a statement read on her behalf, Ms Helen Adjoa Ntoso, Eastern Regional Minister, asked Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to promptly provide schools with water and sanitary facilities and to organize regular education in hygiene and nutrition for the caterers.