Linden officials express concern over “wastage” of food sent to dorms

Officials at the Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Regional Democratic Council (RDC) have expressed concerns over reports of “wastage” of food and a lack of accountability surrounding items sent to school dorms within the region. These issues were discussed on Thursday when the Council met for the hosting of its final statutory meeting for 2018, with numerous concerns being raised.
Regional Executive Officer (REO) Orrin Gordon made reference to instances where large quantities of juices, for example, are sent by the Education Ministry that are just a few months away from the expiration date. The REO said in such a case, it is difficult for the students to consume the amount in the specified time allotted before expiration.
“We get juice, for example… about four or five hundred boxes came into the

dorms, sent to the dorm; the juice, they are expired in October and November and they come in September. There’s no way that the children can drink out the juice in that short space of time. So we had to do a set of things really, you know, to get that juice out as early as possible before the expiry date,” Gordon told members of the Council. Councillors also pointed out that large amounts of food items are often disposed of, under these and other circumstances.
Gordon pointed out that large amounts of canned items are sometimes held inside the Council’s storage which are obtained at a cheap cost since they are presumably close to expiration date. As such, he said the administration is working on cutting down on the purchase of canned items and has opted to focus on the consumption of fresh fruits.
“So, one of the things we’ve done is try our best to cut down on the amount of tin stuff that we are using. Even the issue of the juices. Certain juices we shouldn’t even be buying. We said better you buy fruits and give the children. But you know some habits are a bit hard to ease but piece by piece we will be able to deal with it,” he said. Regional Chairman Renis Morian noted that there is need for better accountability regarding food sent into dorms.
“The overarching matter is this, we don’t want wastage. We want our children to be adequately fed and we want good accountability as it relates to the stuff that is sent in. And then there must be some sort of knowledge base to know if you’re buying in excess, etcetera,” he said.
Over the course of the year, issues regarding food items at a few school dorms in the Region have been discussed. The Council had previously expressed concern that some food items which were being sent into dorms to be utiliSed were suspiciously not reaching the students but were allegedly being carted off instead. This had led to the suggestion by Morian for dorm staff to be rotated.