President of the School Feeding Caterers Association, Juliana Cudjoe, has said members of the Association have had to make some sacrifices for the President to sustain the programme.
She says although the amount given them, coupled with the taxes they pay on each head is not sufficient, they strive to prepare healthy meals for the pupils, only for their efforts to be unappreciated.
Her comments come on the back of the Auditor-General’s report indicating the food prepared for the pupils are unwholesome. According to the report, some of the caterers prepare food with rotten ingredients for the pupils.
But reacting to the issue, President of the Association, Juliana Cudjoe, told Onua FM’s Nana Yaa Brefo Danso on Yen Nsempa, that had it not been their sacrifices, the programme would have collapsed.
“We the caterers sacrifice. We have decided to sacrifice to support the government else this [school feeding programme] wouldn’t have sufficed because we are mothers.
“We cannot cook without tasting some so we can’t prepare malnourished food for the children. They should come and apologise to us caterers because they have disgraced us,” she indicated.
The Auditor-General has revealed in the 2022 report that numerous school feeding caterers in five regions provided thousands of pupils with unwholesome meals.
The report highlights disturbing findings, particularly in the Upper East and Greater Accra regions, where children were served rice with pebbles and beans infested with worms and weevils.
“In the Upper East and Greater Accra regions, children at different locations were served rice that had pebbles in it, and beans infested with worms and weevils,” the report contains in some part.
Additionally, it was found that some caterers added food coloring to dishes like jollof rice, violating the National Operations Manual requirements.
The report also observed that the food served was often insufficient to last through the school day.
“58 caterers out of some 245 schools the auditor sampled across five regions provided poor quality meals for the pupils. Caterers in 21 out of 73 schools in the Greater Accra region, and one out of 22 schools in the Western Region provided poor quality food for the pupils in the Upper East region in August 2022.
“A head teacher in the Nabdam district reported, that the caterer at different locations served rice that had pebbles in it, beans infested with worms and weevils, and waakye without delicious stew. In the Greater Accra region, a monitoring report indicated that the caterer for a fifth battalion A primary school added food color to the jollof rice contrary to the requirements of the National Operations Manual,” the report added.
The Auditor-General’s visits to various schools revealed that not all caterers used wholesome food items. “At the Ankyernyin D/A Basic School, it was observed that cooks prepared jollof without any protein contrary to the requirements in the National Operations Manual. In another instance, the cook at the Kanfakrom D/A school in the Western Region used corn dough that had gone moldy to prepare banku for the pupils.”
The inadequacy of food portions was another critical issue. At the Medina Estates MA One Primary School in the Greater Accra region, the report noted that “waakye prepared by the caterer was not adequate for 188 pupils. The quantity is supposed to be two 16-litre food warmers to feed 188 pupils, but only enough for 116 was provided.”
Meanwhile, Madam Cudjoe noted that she and her staff consume some of the food and there is no way they will prepare unwholesome food for the children.
“I eat some of the food together with my staff, teachers, headmistress so how would we prepare unwholesome food for the children. We were given GHC1.00 from 2017 to 2024 and paid 30% tax so it was 97pesewas until they increased it to GHC1.20p after our numerous cries for them to increase it to GHC3.00. We pay tax of 30pesewas from the GHC1.20p. We deserve to be praised rather than our images being tarnished as caterers. We don’t prepare unwholesome food. With GHC1.17p we prepare banku, jollof, waakye, groundnut and palm nut soup,” she disclosed.
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