Caterers under the School Feeding Programme have described the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) government as heartless and insensitive for failing to address their concerns.
The caterers had appealed to the government to settle their outstanding debts and enhance the amount allocated per child.In response, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, the Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, suggested a GH¢1.20 increment during a press briefing with reporters on Sunday, June 4.
However, the caterers, who have halted their services since schools reopened, consider the government’s offer insufficient and unsatisfactory. The aggrieved caterers are insisting on the payment of GH¢3.50 per child as a precondition for terminating their strike.
Speaking to reporters, the spokesperson for the caterers in the Ashanti Region, Dorothy Ofori Sarpong, criticized the government for not acting on their demands.
“Nobody in the national head office or the presidency will say that they have not heard what is going on. They are our husbands, we are their wives, sisters and daughters, and they know us. Nobody has even taken the pain to ask why we have been ranting all this while.
“They rather insult us that we are disgracing them, but what we are going through, they don’t care, that is why I’m saying they [government] are heartless, people are dying, and they don’t care. We have gone everywhere, they all have information about our case,” Madam Dorothy Ofori Sarpong said.
Asked if their public outburst will not affect the fortunes of the party in the 2024 general elections, the caterers in the Ashanti Region stated, “Unless they provide whatever we are asking, then we can gather momentum and campaign for them for being a listening government. They should listen to our cries and provide us with what we want. If they refuse, we will all go to sleep. Until they pay us our money, we will not do that again for them to get power and lord over us.”
