Govt has once again increased the school feeding grant from GH¢1.50 to GH¢2 per pupil, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, has announced.

She disclosed this while answering questions about her Ministry on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, June 24, while highlighting the number of children the programme caters to across the country. Dr Agnees also revealed that this grant was tax-free, i.e. caterers will suffer no deductions on the money, hence they’d be able to access the full amount and deliver the best meals to students.

“I had earlier stated that the amount used to be GH¢1.50 and that has been increased to GH¢2. The tax component has also been taken off so that the caterers can have the full amount to be able to serve our children.”

According to the Minister, the move forms part of the government’s efforts to implement one of Ghana’s flagship social intervention policies aimed at boosting school enrolment, retention, and academic performance.

According to her, the adjustment is also intended to address concerns raised by caterers and stakeholders about rising food prices and the cost of preparing balanced meals for pupils.

“Mr Speaker, the government recognises the importance of the intervention in improving enrolment and retention while supporting food production,” she explained.

The Ghana School Feeding Programme, which is implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, is designed to provide one hot, nutritious meal per day to pupils in public basic schools, particularly in deprived communities.

The initiative is aimed at improving school attendance, reducing hunger among schoolchildren, and supporting local agricultural production through the purchase of food items from local farmers.

Meanwhile, caterers under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) across all 16 regions received the government’s feeding grant for the 2025/2026 academic year. This information was contained in a press statement issued by the GSFP and signed by Mr Siiba Alfa, Director of Public Relations.

The statement indicated that the fund was disbursed according to the number of days caterers cooked for the beneficiary pupils during the term.

Beneficiaries of GSFP include public basic school pupils, with a focus on those in kindergarten and primary schools across all 261 districts in Ghana, to support children from low-income, food-insecure, and underserved communities across all 261 districts in Ghana.

In 2025, the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) announced the immediate cancellation of contracts for all caterers working under the programme nationwide.

In an official statement issued on May 2, the GSFP directed that no existing caterer should prepare or serve meals for the third term of the 2024/2025 academic year.

“Please be informed that contracts of all caterers of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) nationwide have been terminated with immediate effect. Accordingly, no existing caterer on the programme should cook for the third term of the 2024/2025 academic year,” the statement cautioned.

The Secretariat assured affected caterers that outstanding payments for services rendered during the second term would be settled.

“All outstanding arrears for the second term of the 2024/2025 academic year will be paid in due course,” it said.

The caterers, obviously distraught by the news, appealed, calling on President John Dramani Mahama to intervene and overturn the directive that abruptly ends their contracts, describing the decision as a breach of trust and a blow to their livelihoods.

Speaking during an interview on Channel One Newsroom on Friday, May 2, the Association’s President, Nana Otu Sakyi-Amo, voiced strong disapproval of the directive, noting that it has left many caterers facing severe financial strain with only a few days to the reopening of schools.

“We are still pleading with the president, we are all crying to the president to cancel this immediate termination of our contract,” she appealed. “We know that we have a contract up to August, and this is sudden news to us.”

She revealed that most caterers had already stocked up on food items in anticipation of the upcoming school term, set to begin on Tuesday, and were shocked by the sudden notice.

“We have bought our foodstuff, and school is reopening next week on Tuesday. We have prepared ourselves… We just heard they have cancelled our contracts just like that,” she said with concern.

However, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr. Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, in a few days after the caterers' appeal, announced that caterers who pre-financed food items in anticipation of the new school term will not be compensated for their losses.

Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV on Thursday, May 8, Dr. Lartey sympathised with the caterers but maintained that the government would not reimburse them for food bought without official instruction to begin cooking.

“I sympathise with the situation. There’s no room for compensation, but for the period that they have cooked, they will be paid,” she said.

She clarified that the decision was reached jointly and was not a unilateral government move but one guided by World Bank requirements.

“We are not doing this alone; we are doing it with the World Bank. There are some criteria and conditions to meet, and we didn’t want to be harsh on the caterers. In all honesty, most of them know they don’t have valid contracts,” she said.

She pointed out that after the last general elections, a directive from the then-program coordinator allowed caterers to keep cooking temporarily. This directive, issued during a transitional phase, caused some confusion.

“We are supposed to move to a digital recruitment system with the support of the World Bank, but because of the academic calendar, we could not implement it as swiftly as we would have liked. That’s why we are asking for time to transition smoothly; it doesn’t mean we should maintain the current system without reform.”