Ready-to-Use School Meals in Northern Ghana Are a Viable Alternative to Traditional School Meals

School feeding provides nutrition, brings order to the school day, and enhances student participation. School feeding in low-income countries is often sporadic due to coordination challenges among multiple stakeholders. To assess the reliability of school feeding in Mion district, a food-insecure area in northern Ghana, Project Peanut Butter (PPB) studied ready-to-use school meals (RUSMs) and micronutrient-fortified home-grown school food (HGSF). The school meals were initially provided daily in elementary schools and then extended to junior high schools. The key elements of functional programming were qualitatively compared: costs, ingredient and nutrient content, food preparation, food distribution, and consumer engagement. The cost of ingredients and nutrient content were similar between RUSM and HGSF. Safe and efficient food preparation, distribution, and storage were more readily achieved by RUSM. Consumer engagement is essential for acceptance, but can pose a challenge and disruption contingent upon the degree of ownership the community asserts over food rations. This was seen when pre-school age children were sent to collect food rations from the elementary schools in numbers that exceeded the student enrollment. Overall, the use of a RUSM in a resource-constrained setting allowed for greater safety and reliability of school meals at a similar cost.