Photovoice to better understand school food procurement in Ghana: Interview transcripts

This study aimed to better understand the lived experiences of Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) caterers in order to identify context-specific challenges and solutions around their food procurement and provisioning practices. In 2024, a qualitative participatory photography study was conducted with school caterers working for the national school meals programme, GSFP, in the Greater Accra Region. Participants were asked to take photos of three set themes: Something that makes providing a school meal easy for you; Something that makes providing a school meal difficult for you; A solution or way that difficulty could be overcome. In addition to these set themes, participants worked in pairs to co-create two new study themes, and final themes were selected by group vote. Co-created themes included: stress experienced during food shopping and delayed GSFP payments (district 1); stressful transportation and lack of school kitchens (district 2); and limited access and affordability of food items (district 3). Individual follow-up interviews were conducted with 19 participants and used their photographs as a guide to better understand caterers’ daily lived experience. The data available in this set includes open access to the photovoice interview guide and participant consent form. The data also includes integral transcripts from the 19 interviews with personal information redacted. This data is available upon formal request to the listed contact for a research project. A period of embargo is placed on the transcripts until at least January 2026.