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 states.

Additionally, it was found that some caterers added food coloring to dishes like jollof rice, violating the National Operations Manual requirements.

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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 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."