The School Feeding Caterers say the One Cedi and Twenty Pesewas per student offered by the government is not enough to cook nutritionally balanced food for the basic school pupils.

A leader of the caterers, Dorothy Ofori Sarpong revealed to Johnnie Hughes on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show that the government took a unilateral decision to pay the paltry sum of One cedi and Twenty Pesewas, which shows the government’s blatant disrespect for the caterers and lack of value for their service.

“The minister never engaged anybody ever since we started this fight. Nobody has engaged us so she shouldn’t say so. Because we said that this Wednesday we are going to embark on a naked demonstration to the presidency and that is why I also believe that the World Bank country director also threatened that they are going to withdraw their grant because there is no transparency in the school feeding payment. That is why she rushed to come and say that thing’ she lamented.

Madam Ofori Sarpong emphasised that the one cedi and twenty Pesewas per student is inadequate and will not be possible to cook a well-balanced diet for the students.

“You just propose one Cedi Twenty Pesewas without consulting the caterers. How are we going to use one cedi twenty pesewas to cook a good meal for the children? It can’t be possible. We are just waiting for them (Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection) to come. They don’t respect us, they just want to push things on us. This one cedi twenty pesewas? We cannot cook with it” she stressed.

The leader of the caterers told 3FM that some of their members are battling with debt to the extent that they have fled their homes because they are being chased by their creditors.

“It is sad. It is collapsing homes. I have one woman around me, she has gone blind because she couldn’t get any money to buy medicine. Another woman has died because of the pressure. With this school feeding thing if we don’t find something else doing, we will all die” he bemoaned.

Meanwhile, the caterers who had initially requested the government to increase the fee from GH¢1 (97 pesewas) to Three Cedis and Fifty Pesewas (GH¢3.50) per student have mentioned that they are willing to manage with Two Cedis for the sake of the school children, but the delayed payment should cease.

By Samuel Afriyie Owusu|3news.com|Ghana