Beneficiary pupils of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) will soon be served free cocoa drinks for breakfast from August this year.

This was disclosed by the Acting National Coordinator of GSFP, Gertrude Quashigah at a regional capacity-building training workshop for caterers, cooks and district nutrition officers at Wa in the Upper West Region.

According to Mrs Quashigah, the cocoa drink will be served to the pupils in addition to their meals for good nutrition.

Mrs Quashigah also hinted at certain moves being made to improve the quality of meals served to the pupils, welfare of the caterers, as well as the expansion and sustainability of the programme to benefit more Ghanaian children.

The training programme, dubbed: ‘Innovative Nutrition Initiative’, is under the theme: ‘Improving School Meals through Capacity-Building’ and is geared toward equipping caterers and their head cooks to measure up to the required quality standards of preparing nutritious meals for the pupils.

The Acting National Coordinator also said the workshop was organised to train the participants on the use of the meal planner software to generate district-based menus to deepen the involvement and participation of the Regional Coordinating Councils; and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in managing an efficient and effective home-grown School Feeding Programme.

Beginning from the Upper West Region, over 5,711 caterers and head cooks are to undergo the intensive training programme. It will then move to the Upper East, North East, Northern and Savanna regions.

The training programme is being funded by the World Food Programme (WFP) with technical support from the Partnership for Child Development (PCD).

The School Feeding Programme was set up to increase school enrolment, attendance, retention, and also reduce short-term hunger and malnutrition while boosting domestic food production.