The alleged weevil infested rice served to the children at Ahanta West
THERE IS growing fear of food poisoning and other diseases among children in the Ahanta West district of the Western region after reports that unwholesome and weevil infested rice is being prepared for school children in the area under the School Feeding Programme.
DAILY GUIDE gathered the health of children in the beneficiary schools may suffer if they continue to eat the alleged contaminated rice purportedly been supplied to the caterers who cook for them.
Reliable sources at some beneficiary schools told the paper that because of the unpalatable rice, most of the school children particularly those in upper primary throw it away, refusing to eat it.
The sources said even though the caterers themselves are unhappy about cooking the alleged unwholesome rice, they have no choice since it is supplied to them from Accra.
The sources said some members of the Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) at some beneficiary schools have made several complaints about the situation to Ahanta West School Feeding Program District Coordinator, Sumanu Haruna but nothing has been done about it.
Last Friday, DAILY GUIDE visited Egyam Catholic School, one of the beneficiaries of the programme and even though rice was not served on that day, an opinion leader and a prominent member of the PTA had kept some of the unwholesome rice for our cameras.
The PTA member who pleaded anonymity alleged that as an opinion leader in the community he had to go to the school to ascertain the truth after some of the school children complained of stomach aches after eating the rice.
“I went to the school myself to collect some of the rice and in fact the food was tasteless and smelled bad to the extent that even I an adult could not eat it,” he said.
He wondered exactly where the rice originated from stressing it might have been contaminated before being supplied to rural communities in the district.
He alleged that the two caterers in the school had been supplied with about 25 bags of the unwholesome rice. They had used five bags so far and he called on Mr. Haruna to stop them from cooking the rest.
A kindergarten teacher at Apimanim DC Primary, another beneficiary school in the district also confirmed that children in the school were being fed the same unwholesome rice.
Mr. Haruna did not answer calls from the paper to react to the allegations.
Meanwhile, when Ambruce Ankrah, Western Regional Coordinator of the programme was contacted, he explained that the rice currently being served in schools nationwide was locally produced and that even though it might not taste like the imported or polished ones, it was very nutritious.
On whether he had received complaints from the Ahanta West district about the issue he answered in the negative.
“I have my monitors in the district and I hope they will let me know if they receive any complaint about the rice you are talking about,” he noted.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Agyam
