Basic school children across the country will be starved of their favourite hot meal on their first day of reopening, because the school feeding programme is in crisis. Joy News correspondent, Joseph Osei reports of a scuffle in the Upper East Region between caterers appointed under the erstwhile NPP administration and those recently appointed over who has the right to prepare the food for the children. The old caterers had reported to duty only to find out that their jobs had been taken over by the new 'recruits'. According to Osei, the struggle for supremacy between the caterers is rife in the Kassina-Nankana District as well as the Bolgatanga Municipality. It is not clear who will be given the mandate to serve the meal. Some of the old caterers have also sued the district assemblies for illegally terminating their contracts. The Upper East coordinator of the School Feeding Programme who described the developments as unfortunate pledged to find an amicable solution to the problem. But the seeming crisis appears to be nationwide. In the Ashanti Region, Kofi Asante of Nyira FM reports that some NPP activists have threatened a new caterer in Kordea to desist from preparing the dish to the school children. They claim, they do not know the new caterer contracted by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to prepare the meals for their children and will not allow to cook. They have warned of dire consequences if the lady should go ahead with the cooking. Whilst the Central Region did not record any violent scenes, at least not yet, the school children have been completely deserted, with no sign of caterers, old or new, to prepare food for them. According to the Central Regional correspondent, Richard Kojo Nyako the old caterers have abandoned their duty post to avert any confrontation with newly recruited ones. Others complained of government’s indebtedness to them and for which reason they will not be able prepare the hot meal any longer for the children. The school feeding programme was instituted in 2006 to provide at least one hot meal for basic school children. The essence is to improve enrollment at the basic level of education. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana