Connecting school meals and food systems in Ghana: a new Community of Practice launches
- Apr 2
- 5 min read
What if the food needed to improve children’s diets is already available – but not being included in school meals?
This question framed a recent webinar: School Meals and Food Systems in Ghana: Experiences, Progress, and Emerging Priorities, which brought together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working across school feeding, nutrition, and agriculture. The event, held on 23 March 2026, also marked the launch of the Ghana Community of Policy & Practice (CoPP) – a new platform aiming to bridge the gap between policy and practice in school feeding, and turn shared learning into action.
Opening the session, Professor Francis Bruno Zotor, Vice President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences and Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the Fred N. Binka School of Public Health University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), emphasised the wider role of school meals:
School meals are about much more than feeding children – they are linked to nutrition, education, local agriculture, livelihoods, and the strength of our food systems.
In Ghana, this connection is increasingly recognised as a key opportunity. The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) currently reaches around 4.5 million pupils, contributing to improved school attendance and reduced short-term hunger. At the same time, challenges remain around the nutritional quality of meals, with nearly 70% of school children affected by malnutrition.
Together, these realities point to a clear opportunity: to strengthen the links between local food systems and school meals, ensuring that nutritious, locally available foods play a greater role in what children eat every day.
Using local foods to strengthen school meals
Across the webinar, speakers shared practical examples of how this opportunity is already being explored.
Seth Offei, Deputy Director of Operations at the GSFP Secretariat, described how soy is being introduced into school meals as a locally available, affordable source of protein. The programme trains school caterers on how to prepare and cook soy-based meals, while working with district authorities to link them with farmers growing soy. In some areas, this is helping align local production more closely with school demand.
Similarly, research led by Jolene Mateko Nyako, Research Scientist and Head of Nutrition at the CSIR–Food Research Institute explored how aquatic foods could play a bigger role in school diets. While fish is widely produced in Ghana, it is not consistently included in school meals.
The research tested practical ways to address this – from developing fish-based products such as powder for soups and stews and fish-based sausages, to working directly with caterers and suppliers to improve how these products are sourced and used.
"When these foods are included, we see impact," Nyako explained. "But it depends on how stakeholders are engaged and how systems work in practice."
Across these examples, the focus is not only on improving nutrition, but on making nutritious foods practical, accessible, and appealing for everyday use in school kitchens.
Making supply work in practice
Ensuring these approaches succeed depends on how food is produced and supplied in different local contexts. Factors such as growing conditions, access to markets, and payment systems all shape what is possible in practice.
Soy, for example, is currently only grown in certain parts of Ghana, as cultivation comes with its own challenges. To expand its use, the GSFP is working with district authorities to encourage farmers to grow soy in suitable areas, linking them directly to demand from schools. Farmers are being supported with practical guidance on cultivation and access to local markets, helping to open up new opportunities for production.
In the case of aquatic foods, practical constraints also needed to be addressed. School feeding programmes often operate on delayed payment cycles, with caterers receiving funds several months after meals are delivered. To make the system work, suppliers and processors have been working together to establish more flexible payment arrangements that align with these timelines.
These efforts also highlight wider opportunities. Ghana’s fish sector is largely made up of women and young people, meaning that strengthening these value chains can support both improved nutrition and more inclusive livelihoods.
The role of community and behaviour change
Supply is only part of the story. What people choose to cook – and eat – also matters.
Joy Murasi, Associate at the Fortified Whole Grain Alliance highlighted how foods like whole grains, despite their nutritional benefits, are often overlooked due to perceptions around taste, texture, and preparation.
“It’s not about dishing out information – it’s about working together to make these foods easy to understand, prepare, and enjoy.”
Efforts are therefore focusing on practical engagement – including cooking demonstrations and working closely with schools and communities to build familiarity and trust.
Community involvement is also proving critical in strengthening school feeding systems more broadly. Mawuli Kushitor, Head of the Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management at UHAS, highlighted strong local willingness to support school feeding, with community leaders and farmers offering land and produce.
In some cases, however, this potential has not been fully realised when communities are not included in planning and decision-making. Strengthening these connections can help ensure that locally available food is better integrated into school meal systems, reducing waste and increasing impact.
Alongside these efforts, initiatives such as community-led school farms are helping to strengthen links between local food systems and school meals. In parts of Ghana, these farms are producing nutrient-rich crops such as orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP), while providing training in climate-smart agriculture and food preparation.
To date, over 400 community members have been trained, around 3,000 OFSP mounds established, and 40 women supported with cooking training – with produce already supplementing meals in four schools. These approaches demonstrate how school meals can serve as a platform for both improved nutrition and local food system development.
A shared platform for action
The launch of the CoPP represents an important step in bringing these efforts together.
By connecting stakeholders from government, research, development organisations, farmer groups, and communities, the platform aims to create a space for dialogue, shared learning, and collaboration. The goal is to build on existing progress and move towards more coordinated, scalable approaches.
As Phyllis Addo of UHAS noted in closing:
“We all have a role to play in making sure school feeding works and is done right.”
