School Feeding Caterers demand apology from Auditor-General for ‘disgracing’ members over unwholesome food report

The School Feeding Caterers Association is demanding an apology from the Auditor-General for what they describe as a disgrace to them. The Association says efforts of its members demand commendation rather than being disgraced.

This is in connection with a report by the Auditor-General indicating the caterers have been serving unwholesome food to the pupils

President of the Association, Juliana Cudjoe, has said the persons that issued the report should apologise to the caterers for issuing such a report which they say is not a true representation of the fact

Madam Cudjoe, speaking on Onua FM’s Yen Nsempa with Nana Yaa Brefo Thursday, July 18, 2024, indicated that “sometimes we tour the schools unexpectedly and all the caterers do their work diligently so we don’t know why they are saying we prepare unhealthy food for the children.

“It is too harsh of them to say we use rotten tomatoes to cook for the children so we demand an apology from the person thatissued the report.”

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 contains in some part.

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

The report also observed that the food served was often insufficient to last throughthe 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 report added.

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.”

Meanwhile, Madam Cudjoe noted that she and her staff consume some of the food and there is no way they will prepare unwholesome food for the children.

She added that although the amount given to them is small, they sacrifice to ensure the children are well fed.

“I eat some of the food together with my staff, teachers, headmistress so how would we prepare unwholesome food for the children. We were given GHC1.00 from 2017 to 2024 and paid 30% tax so it was 97pesewas until they increased it to GHC1.20p after our numerous cries for them to increase it to GHC3.00. We pay tax of 30pesewas from the GHC1.20p. We rather deserved to be praised rather than our images being tarnished as caterers. We don’t prepare unwholesome food. With GHC1.17p we prepare banku, jollof, waakye, groundnut and palm nut soup,” she disclosed.

Source:onuaonline.com