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The National School Feeding program is cash-strapped and unless government moved in quickly to save the situation, many of the caterers would be thrown behind bars by their creditors, The New Crusading GUIDE has gathered.

The caterers, are owed about Gh¢180million spanning 163 days in just one academic year. The caterers are owed 57 days for the first term, 70 days for the 2nd term and 36 days for the 3rd term.

Currently, about 1,750 pupils are on the feeding program.

Most of the caterers who spoke to this paper complained that they had been dragged to court by their creditors for their inability to pay for good purchased on credit.

“Apart from my suppliers, a Microfinace company is also suing me so the government must come to our aid immediately”, narrated a worried caterer.

Meanwhile, this paper has gathered that the Secretariat of the School Feeding Program will tomorrow Tuesday release some amount of money to cover about 60 days which would still not be enough to save the skin of the caterers.

The issue of the program being in debt is now becoming an annual ritual as a similar thing happened last year.

It would be recalled that on August 19, 2014, the National Coordinator wrote a letter to all Regional Coordinators drawing their attention to efforts being made by his outfit to secure soft loans from Masloc and that interested caterers were to submit their names to one Mrs. Kuma-Mintah latest by 26th August 2014.

The Secretariat had been in debt for over a year and it had to run to MASLOC to seek refuge.

The Executive Director of the GSFP S.P. Adamu who conceded that the programme was unable to pay its caterers attributed it to the inability of the central government to promptly release funding to enable managers of the programme pay the caterers.

According to Mr. Adamu: “the economic situation in the country has affected the release of grants to the School Feeding Programme”.

The programme provides one nutritious meal each school day for all infant and primary school children (4-12 years) and has the following short-term goals: Reduce hunger and malnutrition, increase school enrollment and attendance, and stimulate local food production.

In 2005, school enrollment, attendance and retention at public basic and primary schools in Ghana were significantly lower than today. Starting from a total of ten schools nationwide when the pilot was initiated by President Kufuor, SFP now serves over 1.7 million school children in 4,952 schools.

The government of Ghana is now the sole financier of the programme after The Netherlands government withdrew its support in 2010.

However, the programme receives technical assistance from the Partnership for Child Development, the World Food Programme and SNV, a Dutch NGO.

The criteria for selecting beneficiary schools include the poverty levels of areas, inability of children to go to school because they don't have food, lack of concentration due to the lack of food and long distances pupils travel to attend school.