It, however, took exception to a recent publication that caterers in the Upper East Region are feeding pupils with less quality food.
The claim was attributed to unnamed district directors of education in the Region.
“The GSFP Management does not abhor genuine and constructive criticisms from any Ghanaian,” said a rejoinder issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Programme.
“We therefore would have appreciated if the said GES Directors did a good job by telling us or Ghanaians how they arrived at the conclusion that the school feeding in the entire Upper East Region is being poorly implemented.”
It noted that “a social intervention of this magnitude may not be immune from challenges”.
“Thus, there could be possible infractions and isolated cases of noncompliance to our laid down rules and regulations by some section of our stakeholders.
“It is, however, improper for the directors to generalise the issue and create the erroneous impression that all the school feeding caterers in the Upper East Region are not doing the right thing.”
It clarified that since 2019, all caterers of the Programme, precisely those in the Upper East Region, have undergone “intensive” training.
“The training was organized by the Ghana School Feeding Programme with support from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Partnership for Child Development (PCD).”
It indicated that high-standard protocols are followed by the caterers in delivering their services.
“The Caterers during the training were also introduced to the Texturized Soy Protein (TSP). It is a good source of iron, delivering 15 percent of the recommended daily value and contains all nine of the essential amino acids the human body needs to function.
“Again, Caterers of GSFP do not cook at their own discretions but are guided by special menu tables developed for each region of Ghana based on the availability of foodstuffs at the local level in line with Ghana’s goal of implementing a Home-grown School Feeding Programme to improve on the local economy.
“Serving of meal by GSFP caterers is also guided by the Handy Measures which help them [caterers] to serve the pupils with the right quantity of meal; and to ensure the children are not overfed or underfed.”
On the issue of political victimisation raised in the publication, management of the Programme found it “highly regrettable and unproductive”.
“We also find the comments very inappropriate, because of its potential to undermine and give the programme an unwarranted political coloration.
“The Ghana School Feeding Programme as a national social intervention exists to serve the children and farmers of our dear nation Ghana regardless of their political, ethnic and religious persuasions.”
It allayed fears of all, disclosing that a national monitoring in all 260 districts in the country has begun.
“We therefore hope to unearth and appropriately deal with those involved in such isolated misconducts.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana