An assessment of compliance of meal service caterers roles in schools feeding programme and its impact on the school feeding programme

Abstract

The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) faces much criticism in areas of service quality, food quality, food quantity, environmental quality, and menu standardisation. The aimed at investigating the compliance of meal service caterer’s roles and their impact on the school feeding programme at the beneficiary basic public schools under the school feeding programme (SFP) in the Akuapem South District. The study adopted survey research design. The target population comprised caterers and heads at basic public schools in the Akuapem South District. Purposive sampling was used in selecting 66 caterers and 22 heads of the beneficiary basic public schools under the SFP in the Akuapem South District. Questionnaire and interview were used to gather information from the respondents. The finding showed that the caterers pay staff who are employed from the beneficiary community, buy at least 20% value of foodstuffs from smallholder farmers, and comply with food safety and hygiene procedures. The study revealed that the caterers sometimes follow a few personal hygiene rules, and sometimes adhered to proper procedure of cooking, holding, and serving food to the school children. The study found no association between age group of caterers and compliance of role in SFP (F(df)=1.567, p=0.196>0.05). The study found that compliance of caterer’s role under the SFP differ with respect to their educational level (F(df)=2.735, p=0.005<0.01). Also, an insignificant association was found between compliance of caterer’s role and the number of years working in the SFP (F(df)= 1.421, P=0.203<0.01). The study concluded that compliance of caterers role had a significant effect on the performance of SFP. It was recommended that the coordinators of the SFP should organise periodic seminars, and training programmes to educate caterers of the SFP regarding their roles and the hygienic practices that could guarantee the pupils health.