Caterers of the School Feeding Programme in the Ashanti Region are demanding payment of monies owed them and an increase in feeding fees.
The aggrieved caterers on Monday (20 March) besieged the Regional Secretariat of the Ghana School Feeding Programme to press home their demands.
Their leaders complained that the caterers are suffering to feed the students with a balanced meal due to the hikes in the prices of food.
“We haven’t been paid for three terms. We are also yet to be paid for the COVID-19 hot meals we served. And the shocking aspect is that some of the regions have started receiving payment. It is so sad that the Banks have started chasing us and all attempts to get the government to intervene have yielded no results”, a caterer, Dorothy Ofori Sarpong told Asaase News.
“We are pleading with the government to pay us and take us out of this business. If the government does not pay us by Friday then we will strike”, she threatened.
In 2022, caterers proposed raising the feeding fee to GHC3 per pupil, up from 97 pesewas. But Sarpong said the government has neglected their proposal.
They indicated that the current 97 pesewas are not enough, hence the need to increase it to 3 cedis to ease the burden on them.
Director of the Ashanti Regional Secretariat at the School Feeding Programme Mary Duodu called for calm as the government works to settle the arrears.
Reporting by Jonathan Ofori in the Ashanti Region
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