PATH caterers ready to quit

WESTERN BUREAU:

Some caterers providing food for schoolchildren under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) are considering packing it in as their current arrangement with the Government is no longer economically viable.

One disgruntled caterer told The Gleaner that the Government allocates $120 for each child per day.

“That (amount) is unrealistic. This has been so for the last five years and is woefully inadequate as the input to provide the lunch has increased by over 100 per cent,” the caterer said.

“The box to put the lunch in now cost $40. The price of chicken is over $300 [per pound]. Cooking oil is over $3,000 per gallon. We have pointed out these increases in meetings [with the Ministry of Education] and have been promised increases, but to date, none has been forthcoming,” the caterer added.

At Wakefield Primary School in Trelawny, where the PATH students are asked to contribute $50 towards their meals at lunchtime, Principal Michael James said it is a challenge catering to the 260 students on the programme.

He said that even with the students’ contribution, the caterer is struggling to break even.

“I have had to be begging my caterer to continue, but it seems the school will soon have to take over that programme,” James told The Gleaner.

Karlene Segree, director for Region One in the Ministry of Education, said the ministry is not able to provide more funds and is asking school administrators to find a way to keep the programmes going.

“The allocation is a policy decision by the ministry. There is nothing we can do about it. What we can do is encourage principals to find creative means to provide a lunch as nutritional as can be at the cheapest,” said Segree.

Reacting to Segree’s statement, one principal, who asked not to be identified, said the recommendation could put schools in trouble, noting that administrators did not have the freedom to use money allocated for other areas of school maintenance to subsidise lunches.

“If you do that, you will be charged for misappropriation of funds,” the principal said.

Restaurant operator Chris Jobson, who sells a small lunch for $560, cannot fathom how the ministry expects a caterer to charge $120 for the students’ lunch, which generally consists of one cup of rice, chicken, and pasta.

“Even selling at that price ($560), I have to be careful that I make a profit. I wouldn’t even entertain an invitation to be caterer,” said Jobson.

Isna Greyson, principal of Bounty Hall Primary School, is worried about the future of programme at her school.

“There are students on the programme who, were it not for school, would not get anything nutritional to eat. The inadequate subsidy must be addressed because it means so much to the students,” she told The Gleaner.

leon.jackson@gleanerjm.com