School grapples with food waste

OMUTHIYA – Hostel food at the Tsintsabis Combined School is increasingly going to waste due to a lack of cold storage facility. The situation has resulted in the accommodation of lesser pupils as one of the strategies to avoid wastage.

The school has thus opted to only house few learners to avoid ordering large quantities of food items.

In the meant ime, the school uses chest freezers, which can only accommodate a small quantity of perishable food items.

“Everything we need is ordered in smaller quantities to make sure that all is consumed within a shortest possible period. Therefore, we now get weekly food delivery, as we don’t have the capacity to keep all items,” stressed a staff member who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.

“The hostel can accommodate over 100 learners but we had to reduce to 40 because there is no where we will store the food to cater for a large number. We have many kids suffering and who need to be in the hostel, but we are just unable.”

The staff member appealed to the ministry of education to provide the school with a cold storage room.

“It would, therefore, be great if the ministry could provide us with a cold storage room. In the absence of that, food and money will continue getting wasted,” remarked the source.

Christeline Narubes, who has been acting principal at the school, said she is not aware of the situation where food is rotten and whether there was enough fridges at the hostel.