A school kitchen can take a steady order, but the cook, the bursar and the payment route decide whether your delivery is paid for.
Halaal Farms Ghana team16 May 2026 · 11 min read
A household buys eggs on a Saturday and cooks them that evening. A school buys by the term. The money is set aside in a budget before the children arrive, the meals are planned weeks ahead, and every order has to be approved by someone who will be asked later where the money went. That makes a school a steady customer once you are in, but slow and formal to get into.
The formality works in favour of the seller who prepares. Come with a clear supply, a written price and a delivery day, and the school has an easy yes. Come with a bucket of eggs and a phone number, and you will wait a long time, and you may be asked for a receipt you do not have.
Most of what follows applies to day schools, boarding schools and similar institutions that feed people every day, such as training centres and mission homes. Government feeding works differently, and we cover it further down.
Before you approach anyone, decide which kind of school you are dealing with, because each one buys for a different reason.
Government feeding is a separate route. In the national school feeding programme, meals are prepared by caterers who are paid through the district office, so you usually sell to the caterer and not to the school itself. Confirm the current rules with the district education office or the feeding programme office before you quote. Procurement routes change, and a supplier who goes around them can be left waiting a long time for payment.
A school has several people who matter, and they do not always agree. The headmaster or headmistress approves anything that changes the school's arrangements. The bursar controls the money and decides when it is paid. The cook or the matron knows what the kitchen actually needs. The agric teacher will tell you what the practical course asks for. Start with the cook, because the cook gives you the numbers. Then take those numbers to the bursar and ask for the approval in writing.
Visit in person at least once. Look at the kitchen, the store and the place where the eggs or the birds would be kept. Ask to see the menu and the days the kitchen uses most eggs. A school that welcomes those questions is usually one you can work with. One that avoids them is not always a bad school, but it will need more chasing.
Expect a list of questions, and write the answers down. They will shape your supply more than your price will.
Schools punish inconsistency more than they punish a small price. If the kitchen expects thirty trays and gets twenty-two one week and forty the next, the cook will buy from someone else. So size the flock to the smallest regular order you can guarantee, not the largest one the school mentions at the first meeting.
Work the flock out in reverse. Take the number of eggs the kitchen wants each week, then add the eggs you will lose to cracks and to small or dirty eggs, plus the weeks when hens go off lay in the heat or after a vaccine. Add a margin for the hens that get sick. That gives you the number of laying birds to keep. Our guide to supplying hotels and caterers works through the same sum in more detail, and most of it carries over to a school.
Birds for a school farm are a different sum. Our minimum order is one box of 50 chicks. A small school that needs twenty birds for a practical should share a box with a neighbour or another school, or agree in writing how the rest will be sold. The table below sets out the box options from our current list. Confirm the figures with us before you write a price into a letter.
| Option | From, per chick | From, per box of 50 | Where it fits a school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth or Barred Rock (local hatch) | GH₵7 | GH₵350 | Dual-purpose birds for a school farm project |
| Kuroiler or Noiler (local hatch) | GH₵11 | GH₵550 | Hardy birds for a mixed project and a family sale |
| Sasso (local hatch) | GH₵13 | GH₵650 | Free-range birds for a school with open ground |
| Ross 308 or Cobb 500 (imported broiler) | GH₵20 | GH₵1,000 | Fast birds for a kitchen order on a fixed date |
| Hy-Line Brown (imported layer) | GH₵23 | GH₵1,150 | Layers for a steady egg supply to a boarding kitchen |
Agree the price before anything moves. Write down the price per tray, per bird and per delivery, and say whether transport is included. Then settle the payment terms. The usual trouble comes when goods leave on a promise alone. A safer route is a signed order or a short letter from the bursar that names the quantity, the price and the delivery date, plus a part payment before you release a large order. Keep a receipt book and give a receipt for every payment, whether cash or transfer. The school will need one, and so will you.
Plan for delay. A school that pays on time is a joy, but do not build your flock around quick payment. Keep a cash cushion for the feed bill, and do not hatch a second school batch until the first has been paid for. The same discipline in our cash-flow guide applies here. Money tied up in a late payment is money you cannot use for the next batch.
A school kitchen feeds children every day, and the cook will judge your product on hygiene before taste. Keep eggs clean and dry, store them out of the sun, and bring them in trays that have not been used for anything else. Dress birds the same way every time, with clean knives, clean scalding water and a clean table, and do not deliver any bird that looks or smells wrong.
Keep a delivery book with the date, the quantity, the grade and the name of the person who received it. If a tray arrives cracked, the book shows the cook what came in and what you replaced. Ask the school whether it needs a written record for each delivery, or a supplier's name and phone number on file. Give them that, and keep your own copy.
The best first school order is small and clearly defined. One school, one term, one egg order or one box of birds, with the delivery plan and the payment plan both agreed in writing. Deliver it well, keep the book, and ask the cook what would make the next order easier. A second term with the same school is worth more than three schools you chased once and lost.
Once the first term works, look at the bigger picture. Some schools will refer you to another school or to a caterer. Some will put you on a list for the next term. Treat each school as a customer that deserves the same care you would give a hotel. Our guide on repeat egg customers covers how to keep a buyer coming back once the first delivery is done.
You can, but do not release a large order without something in writing from the bursar or the headmaster. A short signed order that names the quantity, price and date protects both sides.
Usually not, unless a boarding house stays open through the break. Ask the cook for the holiday arrangements, and plan your laying flock around the terms, not around the calendar you would like.
Our minimum order is one box of 50 chicks. A small school can share a box with a neighbour or another school, and the split should be written down before the box is ordered.
Agree it in writing before the first delivery. Some schools expect delivery included in the price, and others will collect. Either is fine as long as the price you quote covers the cost of getting the goods there.
Chicks for a school project are the simplest way in, and the order is straightforward. Our guides to the Sasso and the Noiler explain how those local-hatch birds behave on a school site, and the festive cockerels guide covers what a school might sell at a term-end event.
When you are ready to order, send the order form through our order page, or call 024 915 1503 and tell us what the school needs. An order starts with a message, not with money. We will confirm the price, hatch date and delivery cost with you before you pay, by cash, mobile money or bank transfer.
Written by the Halaal Farms Ghana team. We hatch and import day-old chicks at Opeikuma, Kasoa, and deliver to all 16 regions. This article is general guidance for farmers. For diagnosis and treatment of sick birds, speak to a vet or your district veterinary office.
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