The National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Gertrude Quashigah, has lauded government’s pronouncement to increase the number of beneficiary pupils in the coming year, 2022, following the significant impact the Programme is making in the development of education in Ghana.

Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Ken Ofori-Atta, at the reading of the 2022 Budget Statement in Parliament on Wednesday, announced that the beneficiary pupils under the Ghana School Feeding Programme would be increased from the current 3.4 million to over 4 million beneficiaries in the next academic year.

The number of beneficiary pupils of the Programme was increased from 1,671,777 million in 2016/17 to 3,448,065 in 2021 by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, which has resulted in high enrolment figures, high attendance and retention in the beneficiary schools.

Presently, over 32,496 caterers and cooks are employed by the government under the school feeding programme in over 10,832 public basic schools to provide the children with one hot, nutritious meal on every school-going day in all 260 districts nationwide.

Speaking to a cross-section of the media after the budget hearing, the GSFP National Coordinator, Mrs Quashigah, fully welcomed the decision by the government to add more schools to the Programme.

“The planned expansion by the Government means a lot to us - as handlers of school feeding in Ghana…because it is always our expectation that the feeding programme is extended to all schools in Ghana to consolidate our achievements and also maintain our accolade given to us by -AUDA-NEPAD and other reputable organisations as the trailblazer in the whole of Africa”.

According to her, the incumbent government has always proven to be a listening one, which she said would do all it can in ensuring the education, empowerment and wellbeing of the citizenry.

The expansion in the school feeding programme, she noted, would also increase the number of caterers and cooks and local farmers and local food suppliers who work directly or indirectly with the social intervention programme.

Mrs Quashigah has brought some innovations into the Ghana School Feeding Programme in recent months, including digitalising the Programme’s monitoring tools.

She has also started unannounced visitations to beneficiary schools to assess the performance of caterers across the country.

The National Coordinator has appealed passionately to government also to consider increasing the feeding grant per child per day to cushion the caterers.

She also called on the government to expedite action on the passage of the Ghana School Feeding Bill into law to make it more legal, efficient and sustainable for posterity.