School policy gains ground, but off-campus vendors resist change – officials

The two-year-old school nutrition policy is making strides in improving children’s eating habits but faces hurdles with off-campus vendors and student meal acceptance, education and health officials acknowledged Tuesday.

 

Getting vendors outside of schools to comply with the policy and student consumption of the new and improved school meals remain critical challenges, they told journalists at a media conference.

 

The officials insisted that the policy has been making significant headway with several businesses getting on board and reforming their food preparation techniques and offerings to bring them in line with nutrition requirements. They also noted considerable changes in the attitudes of children in primary and secondary schools towards eating healthy meals and fruits and vegetables.

 

But they identified two main challenges hampering the policy from advancing even further.

 

“In life you always get some type of pushbacks and right now the pushback that we’re getting is with the vendors,” said Senior Education Officer Hedda Phillips-Boyce. “The Ministry of Education has no jurisdiction over the vendors on the outside. However, the ones on the inside, the principals have spoken to them about being compliant. [It’s] not always very successful, but the principals have been trying. What I find very disconcerting is that in our nursery schools, we get it right. The parents are bringing the fruits and the water for the children as recommended by the principals but when they go higher up in education, we find the vendors on the outside selling the items which are non-compliant and the parents are giving the children the leeway to do so. So this is a work in progress.”

 

On the consumption of school meals, Phillips-Boyce said it was not the case that the food was not tasty; rather, it was something that the students had to get accustomed to. The recipes used to prepare all of the dishes were changed or altered to make the meals contain more nutritional value.

 

She continued: “The National Nutrition Centre has been working with the School Meals Department and even though our children, because of how they’ve been raised, don’t particularly like to eat the vegetables, the vegetables have been included in the dishes. So you might see macaroni and cheese and you might think it’s just macaroni and cheese. However, that macaroni and cheese has a vegetable in it. With regards to the consumption, whether the children have been eating the meals. I cannot say at this moment. I have heard that a lot of the children have not been . . .  I am very much aware that there are some children who are not consuming the meals . . . The reason why they may not have been is not because the meals are not tasty. I’ve tasted them myself and I think they’re very good. But it is that they (the children) are not used to eating these types of food.

 

“So that’s another avenue that we have to address — encouraging our parents to prepare our vegetables. I know that it’s time-consuming. To pick up something from a fast food restaurant is convenient. To pick up a snack is convenient. I understand that. So I think all of us like minds, we need to get to the point of where we are going to be sharing with parents. How do we prepare these foods which are healthier for our children?”

 

Phillips-Boyce added that what students consumed during break time could also affect their appetite for school meals: “In primary school, you might get a break. So if you’re getting the break and you’re eating a snack, which may be a healthy snack, you’re not hungry for the school meal. So that is something that we might have to discuss with regards to what is served to our children during that snack time.”

 

Despite these issues, she said, the Ministry of Education was pleased about the progress being made.

 

“Following the policy’s launch, in 2022, stakeholders developed a four-year action plan to ensure the main pillars of the policy are in place by the end of 2027. We are seeing compliance with the school canteens, particularly the ones in the secondary schools, and last year with the support from the Pan American Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health and Wellness, we rewarded the efforts of canteens and highlighted three concessionaires who have shown real commitment and innovation.”

 

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Arthur Phillips said some companies were making efforts to improve the nutritional quality of their products.

 

“What we’ve been seeing is that local manufacturers are responding by adjusting their product offerings to align with the policy’s nutritional standards and I see this as a major victory,” he said. “We’re also witnessing an expansion in the availability of new, imported items, healthier imports. So, better local offerings and better imports provide those students with better snack and beverage options that are in line with the school nutrition policy. This shift demonstrates that healthier options are not only possible, but they can increasingly become the norm.”

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb