The National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited have been tasked to get in touch with local foodstuffs suppliers to deliver about 20 per cent of food needs to each school.
The remaining 80 per cent of the food items are expected to be in the schools a week or two after the arrival of the students to enable the government to settle part of its more than GH¢300 million indebtedness to suppliers.
The President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Rev. Fr Stephen Owusu Sekyere said, he is aware some schools had taken delivery of food items such as maize, rice and beans, saying the rest were yet to receive theirs.
He indicated that per the information CHASS had received, food supplies are on their way to the various regions and the schools should take delivery of them by the close of today.
Food getting in the schools
From the Upper East Region, school authorities in SHSs are ready to receive first-year and continuing students to begin the new academic year.
However, checks indicated that many of the schools had not yet received food supplies ahead of the commencement of academic work.
The Chairman of the Upper East Regional branch of CHASS, Richard Akumbas Ayabilla, said only two out of the 26 SHSs in the region had received some food items from local suppliers.
“Since the schools owe local suppliers huge sums of money, the suppliers are not willing to supply more food items, especially the perishable ones, on credit,” he said.
He called on the government to urgently make funds available to enable the schools to pay local suppliers, while awaiting food items from the Buffer Stock Company.
The Headmistress of the Bolgatanga Girls’ SHS, Patricia Agoteba Anaba, said although the staff were ready to receive the students, food items were not yet in.
However, she said the school expected to receive food items from the government by the close of yesterday.
Ms Anaba expressed the hope that while the students would start arriving from this morning, the food items would be received in time to feed them.
The Headmistress of the Kongo SHS, Gifty Ayamba, noted that the school was ready and had put in place measures to receive the students.
From Koforidua in the Eastern Region, Daily Graphic checks indicate that two schools, the Ghana SHS (GHANASS) and the Oti Boateng SHS, were fully prepared to receive continuing students.
The Headmistress of GHANASS, Patience Naki Mensah, said at least 20 boarding students had arrived as of yesterday and the kitchen staff were ready to provide them with meals.
She said under normal circumstances, such students should have waited for today to be fed along with other students who might have arrived on the opening day.
At the Oti Boateng SHS, the situation was the same and the Headmaster, John Hawkson Arthur, said adequate preparations to make boarding students feel at home on their arrival had been completed.
“We have made all the necessary arrangements to make the arriving boarding students happy to stay without any hindrance. “Those responsible for the provision of food are also ready to play their part,” Mr Arthur said.
Buffer Stock.
The Buffer Stock Company started supplies last Wednesday and would continue until bulk suppliers in charge of delivering 80 per cent of the food needs of the schools stepped in, a source at the company told the Daily Graphic.
The strategy, it said, had been adopted since it took some time for the bulk suppliers to reach the schools.
“So while waiting for that bulk to come in, we asked our regional managers to liaise with local suppliers, so that they will handle 20 per cent of supplies,” the source said.
It added that “so far the items are trickling in at the various schools”
.The source at the Buffer Stock Company added that its information collected from across the country indicated that food items were reaching the various schools.
