The management of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has disputed claims made by some Ghana Education Service (GES) District Directors in the Upper East Region that pupils in the region under the programme are underfed with “poor quality meals”.
According to the GSFP in a rejoinder dated July 7, 2021, the pupils could not have been malnourished when the management has trained and equipped caterers under the programme with prerequisite knowledge and skills on managing nutritional problems.
“All GSFP Caterers and their head cooks have since 2019 undergone intensive Practical Innovative Nutrition Training. The training was organized by the Ghana School Feeding Programme with support from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Partnership for Child Development (PCD).
“Over 5,711 caterers and head cooks in the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West Regions benefited from the training between 10th and 21st June 2019.
“The training was to empower the caterers with the requisite practical cooking skills using the locally grown foodstuffs for a nutritiously balanced meal for the school children,” the statement said in part.
The GSFP management also made it known that meals served to pupils in the region are based on available home-grown foods, which was part of its policy designed and implemented for all regions.
The statement said: “Caterers of GSFP do not cook at their own discretions but are guided by special menu tables developed for each region of Ghana based on the availability of foodstuffs at the local level in line with Ghana’s goal of implementing a Home-grown School Feeding Programme to improve on the local economy.”
“Serving of meal by GSFP caterers is also guided by the Handy Measures which help them [caterers] to serve the pupils with the right quantity of meal; and to ensure the children are not overfed or underfed” it continued.
Specifically on the nutritional value of meals served, the management noted that the caterers were also introduced to the “Texturized Soy Protein (TSP)”, adding that it is “a good source of iron, delivering 15 percent of the recommended daily value and contains all nine of the essential amino acids the human body needs to function.”
