School Feeding: Food served by the cooks woefully inadequate to sustain pupils – Auditor General’s Report

A report by the Auditor General has highlighted the need for additional investment to improve the School Feeding programme.

According to a recent report published by the Auditor General on its website, food served by the cooks is woefully inadequate to sustain pupils through the instructional period or school day.

“Generally, we observed during our visit to the schools that, food served by the cooks were not adequate to sustain the pupils through the instructional period or school day. For instance, at the Madina Estate M/A ‘1’ primary school in the Greater Accra Region, we noted that the food (waakye) prepared by the caterer was not adequate to feed the 188 pupils for the afternoon shift.

“According to the cook and the assistant headteacher, two 16-litre food warmers full of waakye would have been adequate to feed the 188 pupils. However, the caterer provided one 16-litre food warmer of waakye as shown in picture 1,” the Auditor General’s report said.

The report further indicated that the Assistant headteacher of the school noted that meals prepared by the caterer were always inadequate, hence it was only pupils in KG to primary two who got food to eat.

Due to the challenge, the pupils in primary three to six often did not get food to eat.

Therefore, the pupils did not concentrate in class due to hunger and subsequently did not regularly attend school.

This challenge is common in many schools, highlighting the need for more investments in the School Feeding programme.

The Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP) which started in 2005 is an initiative of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) Pillar 3 which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition.

Over the years, it has helped to improve education in the country, especially at the basic school level.

However, the challenges encountered in recent years have been disturbing.