The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has announced that it will expand the School Feeding Programme to all schools across the country.

“If everyone is enjoying free senior high school, it is equally fair for everyone to enjoy school feeding,” the sector minister said during a panel discussion on the topic: ‘Protecting the vulnerable through enhanced access to education, jobs and social services’.

According to the Member of Parliament for Agona West, some schools are losing students to neighbouring ones because they are not on the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).

The school feeding programme has improved enrollment in schools from about 2.67million pupils between the 2016/2017 academic year to about 2.93 million pupils in 2019. 

“This shows that hunger and poverty are reasons why children could not enroll in school,” she said.

Local meals such as ‘Konkonte’ and peanut butter soup, ‘Gari Fotor’, Ampesi and kontomire stew are some of the meals that will be added to the menu to have nutritious meal options.

Additionally, the school feeding programme, according to the Minister, 24,207 women have been employed as cooks and with sight of an expansion ahead, additional numbers would be employed.

She also called for kitchens in schools to ensure proper supervision of food prepared and to promote hygiene.

The GSFP introduced in 2005 is an initiative of the comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger, poverty and malnutrition.