The Deputy National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Dr. Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah has indicated that the school feeding programme would see much improvement in the ensuing years, following the various pragmatic measures being put in place by the management.
According to her, the GSFP Secretariat has embarked on nationwide training to engage all key stakeholders at the regional and district levels to discuss pertinent issues, challenges, success stories and the way forward for the GSFP.
She maintained that thirteen (13) years after the introduction of the school feeding programme, there was definitely the need for the management and partners to ensure that certain appreciable standards were met, so that the beneficiary pupils could enjoy.
It was against this backdrop, Dr. Mrs. Quashigah noted instigated the ongoing training workshops to create rooms for brainstorming, questions, suggestions and criticisms to offer the officials of GSFP the opportunity to know about the actual issues or happenings on the ground and what should be done to address them.
The Nutrition Specialist said that from 2019 more attention was going to be given to ensure that the caterers provide the right amount of nutrient in every meal they prepared for the children to fight against the high level of undernourishment.
She indicated that there were several protein and vitamin rich food crops the caterers could use in cooking at their localities to boost the growth of the children.
“We cannot work without knowing the main focus for the school feeding programme. The purpose is not just to cook anything at all to fill the stomachs of the children but cooking to feed the children against hunger, malnutrition and diseasesâ€.
Citing the Central Region as an example, Dr. Mrs. Quashigah observed that the key stakeholders, most especially the Regional Coordinating Council and the District Assemblies could take advantage of the school feeding to encourage farmers to increase food production and create a ready market around the caterers.
She was optimistic that if the farmers and the caterers are brought together there would be common understanding and the farmers would only produce and supply food crops according to the exact needs of the caterers.
“School feeding programme goes beyond just cooking for the kids. We can take advantage to boost our local economy. For instance, the RCC can bridge the gap between the farmers and the caterers in Central Region by creating a platform for the farmers and the caterers to meet and showcase what kind of food crops they have here which are so important and nutritious for the caterers to use. I take the orange fleshed sweet-potato and its leaves as one example which is highly nourishing in vitamin A’ and iron supplements. If we include it in the daily or weekly menu it will eradicate stunting which is very common in the region.â€
The Deputy National Coordinator of GSFP also encouraged the caterers to add more soya into their foods; in the soup and stew so that the children could have more protein food to eat in addition to the sweet potatoes or whatever food.
Dr. Mrs. Quashigah revealed that the World Food Programme (WFP) was supporting some farmers in Ghana to go into potato farming so that they could produce more especially the leaves for the consumption of children.
She assured that, the monitoring system of the school feeding would also be intensified in every region to ensure that caterers, cooks and other officers go by the set standards.
Meanwhile, the GSFP and the COCOBOD
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has learnt are likely to start the introduction of cocoa drink in addition to the daily meals being provided to the children to boost their energy and growth.
, December 05, 2019