The Ghana School Feeding Programme, which was initiated by the government some two years ago, is currently feeding 500,000 pupils from various schools across the country.

Although the programme has been successfully implemented, it has still not been able to achieve its target of feeding one million pupils.

The shortfall has been attributed to the fact that people assigned to various roles have not been following instructions, thus misdirecting some of the feeding materials to unassigned destinations.

The Executive Chairman of the School Feeding Programme, Dr. Amoako Tuffuor, stated at a round table discussions in Accra that the programme was meant to give hope to children who were unable to get the needed support as far as feeding was concerned.

"The School Feeding Programme marks the beginning of the first step on a journey to feed deprived Ghanaian children who have no access to food during schooling periods," he said.

He stated that 975 schools have benefited from the programme since its introduction two years ago, and promised to reach out to more schools in the near future.

He noted that the School Feeding Programme was a good initiative to boost the New Educational Reform programme.

The programme, he said, had eased the burden on both parents and teachers in their quest to provide their children with the quality food.

When asked the source of the money for the programme, the Executive Chairman said the government and other foreign institutions were supporting it. According to him, the necessary preparations were being put in place to extent the programme to other rural and urban areas that have not yet benefited from the initiative.

Dr. Tuffuor called on the government to continue supporting this great programme of feeding school children in the country.