'Our food is not tasteless, I also eat the food' – School feeding caterer

A caterer under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Naa Humu Boateng, has debunked claims that meals served to schoolchildren are tasteless, insisting the real issue lies in the small quantity due to inadequate funding.

“Our food is not tasteless, but the quantity is small. In terms of protein, sometimes we use beans, and beans has protein. And we do not cook raw rice, we add vegetables, and there is nutrition in the vegetables,” she said.

Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Friday, May 2, she lamented the financial constraints affecting meal preparation, noting that the stipend provided per child remains inadequate despite promises of an increase.

“The money that they were paying us was 97 pesewas, and they increased it to 1 cedi 45 pesewas, and the last time we heard that they are increasing it to 2 Ghana cedis. But even with that, we haven’t received it yet, so how do you expect us to use an amount of 500 or 400 Ghana cedis to cook for about 350 school kids? We cook the food well, but the quantity is small. So the rumour that the food is tasteless is not true, because I eat the food myself,” she revealed

Her comments come after the government has terminated all existing caterers under the Ghana School Feeding Programme with immediate effect.

In an official statement dated May 2, 2025, the GSFP directed that no current caterer should provide meals for the third term of the 2024/2025 academic year, marking a significant shake-up in the nationwide initiative.

—citinewsroom