Ebrima Joof, Principal of Armitage Senior Secondary School, has disclosed that the global food crisis has hit Armitage Senior Secondary School, a boarding school with a population of 580 students. 

In an interview with the Daily Observer,  Mr Joof said that the sky rocketing of the price of rice and other commodities had made it the difficult for the school to feed its 580 students  three times a day. He said that they used four bags of rice and one bag of flour per day to feed that number of students, describing that as a big task that needed the intervention of individual donors ßand other philanthropists.

Mr Joof told Daily Observer that the school fees, which is five hundred dalasis (500) per term, out of which three hundred (300) dalasis is for boarding fees, was not enough to feed them and that some students were still in arrears. The principal stressed that the school fees for two students could not buy a bag of rice in Janjangbureh, adding that one bag of rice cost eight hundred Dalasis.

Mr Joof commended the Gambian leader, President Dr. Alhaji. Yahya Jammeh, who, he said, sometime in 2006, donated food items to the school. He described the gesture as one worthy of emulation.  He also commended Gambia Ports Authority(GPA), North Bromsgrove High School, West African tours, Dynamic travel and the Armitage Ex-students Association, for their support to the school.