The Ghana Education Service ( GES) has donated large quantity of food items to the Ghana Prisons Service towards the upkeep of inmates of the country’s prisons.

The food items originally supplied to senior high schools by the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) but had to re-mobilized and re-directed at the Ghana Prisons Service due to the closure of schools as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The items include Tom Brown, Milk, Tomatoe paste, Cocoa Powder, Margerine and Millet.

The rest are Soya beans, Peanut, Ghana rice, Flour, Beans, Maize, Mackerel and Vegetable oil.

Speaking at a symbolic handing-over ceremony in Accra on Tuesday, the Director-General of GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwah explained the unexpected closure of schools meant large quantity of food which had already been supplied and paid for by the state had to be redirected to avoid them going bad.

“ So instead of watching the food go waste, the service felt they could be given to other organizations who may have need them, and the Prisons came to mind”, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said, adding that the GES, Free SHS Secretariat and NAFCO consulted and agreed to donate the items for the upkeep of prisoners.

The Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Mr. Patrick Darko Missah expressed his profound gratitude to the GES and NAFCO for the gesture.

“ Prisoners are not the only vulnerable people in the country so for the donors to have settled on us as recipients for this generous gesture deserves praise and commendation”, he added.

The ceremony was witnessed by the Chief Executive Officer of NAFCO, Mr. Abdul-wahab Hanan Aludiba and Board Chairman, Mr. William Quitoo and other officials of GES and the Ghana Prisons Service.