School feeding caterers serve students unhealthy foods- AG Report

As part of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), students in basic schools are receiving unhealthful food, according to the Auditor-General’s report for 2022.

In some of the schools inspected by a team to evaluate the effectiveness and progress of the programme, which was started in 2005 to help increase enrollment at the basic school level, mouldy corn dough was found, according to a performance audit report by the Auditor-General on the management of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).

Non-protein was also used in the preparation of other foods, including jollof rice, in violation of programme guidelines.

As per the AG’s report, all the concerns made by students and teachers during the visits regarding the substandard meals were reported to have been disregarded.

“We saw that some caterers did not use healthful ingredients to cook meals during our visits to the schools. For example, we saw that the cooks at the Ankyernyin D/A Basic School were not following the National Operations Manual’s guidelines when they produced jollof without any protein in front of the caterer and the Western Regional Coordinator.

Additionally, the cook at the Kanfakrom D/A school in the Western Region made banku for the students using mouldy corn dough.

“Yet, the caterers continued to serve them subpar food, which is why they had trouble eating the meals.”