The National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Michael Nsowah, has tasked caterers of the programme to use the best hygienic practice in cooking. He said hygiene will guarantee the health of the children. Mr. Nsowah was speaking at the Annual Conference of World Initiative for Soy in Human Health in Accra.

Mr. Nsowah explained that the programme, has contracted District nutrition officers to assist the cooks to meet the set standard. He said the basic concept of the school feeding programme is to provide schools with one hot meal prepared from local food stuff on every school going day. This he said, has increased enrollment, attendance and retention of pupils in schools. He disclosed that by the year 2010, the programme will enroll about 10 million pupils.

A lecturer of the National Soyabean Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois, USA, Dr. Vijaya Jain, shared some experience of the Indian School Feeding Programmes. She said, her country’s feeding programme has decentralized the programme in order to benefit rural fold. Dr. Jain noted that, under nourished meals can impair children’s physical and mental development there by, leading to blindness. She advised the Ghanaian programme to use soy to improve the nutrients in meals for the children.

A Lecturer and Research fellow of the Department of food science and Nutrition, University of Ghana, Dr. Gloria Otoo, said under nutrition is the underlying cause of child deaths.