The National School Feeding Caterers Association is proposing a ¢3.50 allocation per meal for school pupils under the School Feeding Programme.
This, they said, will be enough to provide nutritious foods for pupils in basic schools across the country.
This comes after the government announced an increment of cost per meal, per child from 98 pesewas to ¢1.20.
The Minister for Gender and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, who announced this, said they are in talks with the Ministry of Finance to see how best the amount can be reviewed.
But the caterers have vehemently rejected the proposed increment noting that it is woefully inadequate to feed the children.
Speaking on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem on Tuesday, President of the School Feeding Caterers’ Association, Charlotte Asante, justified their position.
She explained that the caterers are suffering to feed the pupils with a balanced meal due to the hikes in the prices of food.
“We try to balance but things are not balancing because the money is too small; we are really suffering,” she bemoaned.
The distraught caterer said the pupils are expected to be fed a balanced meal, but the government is failing to pay to aid in the preparation of the meals.
She could not fathom why the government cannot commit just ¢3.50 as the llocation amount per child to sustain such a laudable programme.
She said they have resolved not to cook until government reviews the paltry ¢1.20 per child.
The Ghana School Feeding Programme, an intervention by the Government of Ghana, started in 2005 to provide food to children in public basic schools from kindergarten to primary six.
The programme aims to increase school enrolment, attendance and retention, reduce short-term hunger and malnutrition and boost domestic food production.
the caterers have currently laid down their ladles awaiting governments next move even as negotiation continue.