Sierra Leone’s school feeding programme, a flagship of the government’s Free Quality School Education agenda, is under strain as a nationwide teachers’ strike and unpaid supplier arrears raise doubts about whether meals will reach classrooms in the midst of ongoing strike action by teachers.
The teachers’ union began industrial action on Monday over pay, subsidies owed to schools and the suspension of thousands of teachers from the government payroll, disrupting the start of the 2025/26 academic year.
The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) said it transferred second- and third-term subsidies from last year totalling SLE 82.5 million to banks on Sept. 5 and has reinstated 1,802 suspended teachers, while broader grievances are being reviewed by a committee reporting to the vice president. 
Local suppliers say the separate school feeding pipeline remains clogged. Contractors who provide diet supplies to boarding schools and staples for primary school meals have threatened to halt deliveries over long-overdue invoices from the finance ministry, warning that service continuity is at risk without payment.
A finance ministry spokesperson acknowledged arrears to suppliers in July, according to local reporting. 
The standoff highlights a policy contradiction: the government touts progress on mass school feeding while teachers strike over basic conditions and schools report cash-flow stress. The Teaching Service Commission’s payroll “clean-up” removed about 4,662 teachers from salary lists at the end of July; authorities said 1,802 had been reinstated as of Sept. 8 with talks ongoing. Union leaders say the suspensions, combined with subsidy delays, have undermined morale and operations.  
Scale and stakes are high. Plan International, working with MBSSE, says more than 301,000 children in over 1,300 pre- and primary schools across six districts receive daily meals; the World Food Programme (WFP) supports a national pivot toward “home-grown” sourcing from smallholder farmers and has launched distributions for the new school year.
Any prolonged cash squeeze on local vendors could stall that shift and interrupt meals that boost attendance and learning outcomes.   
Budget mechanics add pressure. An IMF staff report notes that school feeding expenditures were reclassified from capital to “goods and services,” placing them in a line item vulnerable to in-year cash rationing. In practice, that can push arrears onto local vendors even when officials say funds have been “committed,” risking stop-start delivery. 
The government documents fresh subsidy transfers and partial reinstatement of suspended teachers; unions say key demands remain unresolved, and strike action will continue.
Meanwhile; contractors say they have not been paid for months and are weighing suspension.
The government has not publicly released a detailed arrears clearance plan for local suppliers. 
However, Partners estimate roughly 300,000 pupils benefit from meals; gaps in last-mile finance could undercut coverage just as schools reopen. 
School meals are central to Sierra Leone’s education and social protection strategy. Evidence shows they raise attendance and support learning, particularly for poorer households.
But the current collision of teacher unrest, subsidy delays and unpaid food suppliers suggests execution risks are widening. Without swift, transparent arrears settlement and a timetable to return all eligible teachers to payroll, the government’s push to expand home-grown school feeding could falter at the school gate. 
By Joe Turay
