Vendors, meeting demand at school gates, say health drive ‘challenging’

The government’s drive to promote healthy eating among schoolchildren has met concerns at school gates, where vendors have told Barbados TODAY that economic realities, parental habits and children’s tastes make it hard to ditch the sugary snacks that keep their businesses alive.

 

But a check on their wares suggests the outside vendors are offering sweet and savoury alternatives for students seeking to escape the healthy options in school canteens.

 

Outside one St Michael-based primary school on Thursday morning, a vendor offered an array of brightly coloured jellos, gummy candies, chips, mini pretzels, hot dogs and other quick breakfast items. When approached for comment, she declined to speak — but the children and workers in the area who stopped to buy told the story of what was in demand.

 

That demand pattern repeated itself across the street from another school where vendor Nicole Maynard has been selling outside the school gates. She explained that while she tries to adjust to the nutritional guidelines, children’s preferences and parental choices often override attempts to go healthier.

 

“I tried to take out all the sweet drinks and tried to do the nutrition plan,” she said. “But the children going by the blue shop round the corner. The children want what they want.Their parents does come and get stuff for the children too, so we don’t have no control over that.”

 

Maynard sells chips, cereals, lemonade, mauby and natural juices, alongside seasoned potatoes, wings, nuggets, pancakes, French toast and hot dogs. “So I try to be different every day.”

 

But despite adding healthier drink options, the most popular sellers remain doughnuts, snow cones, Takis and Cheetos.

 

“Takis, those things taste really bad, but the children love them,” she added with a laugh.

 

Another vendor, who sells a short distance away from Maynard and declined to give their name, said the economic reality for vendors made complete adherence to the changes nearly impossible.
“Truthfully, the snacks that they want me to sell, it’s not even possible to make anything out of it,” she said. “We try hard to sell snacks that are healthy, but the children don’t even look at them. If you don’t have something sweet, they going elsewhere.”

 

She explained that even when she offered apples or bananas, children threw them away. Parents, she added, also routinely purchase sugary treats for their children, undermining attempts to introduce healthier alternatives.
“So I sign the policy, and I try to do what they say,” she said. “But at the end of the day, we as vendors push what selling — and children like candy.”

 

She suggested that encouraging more physical activity and play during school hours might be just as important as policing vendors: “The recommended thing is the children should run ‘bout more. That is what I believe.”

 

Outside the compounds of two nearby schools in Bridgetown, vendor Petronella Medford laid out an extensive list of items she sells — from Welch’s gummies, lollipops and jello cups to plantain chips, wheat crisps, muffins, hot dogs, sandwiches, chicken‑and‑chips, fruit cups and occasionally apples and bananas. Her most popular sellers are hot food items and plantain chips.

 

While she supports the idea of healthier options, fruits pose a challenge.

 

“Most times if parents don’t come to buy fruits for the children; the children will say they have fruits at home,” she said. “So they don’t buy fruits when they come here.”

 

The shift is guided by the Food and Nutrition Policy, which warns that rising obesity among Barbadian children demands urgent action. By 2028, national goals include reducing overweight and obesity rates among children, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, cutting sugary‑drink intake and encouraging more physical activity.

 

The snacks or alternatives recommended by the policy include mini pretzels, granola, plain or lightly salted chips, fruits, nuts, trail mix and mixed fruit cups. Suggested beverages are water, non‑sugar‑flavoured water, sparkling soda water, 100-per cent fruit or vegetable juice, coconut water, plant‑based milk and reduced‑fat milk such as two-per cent milk.

 

On Wednesday, Minister of Educational Transformation Chad Blackman announced that he would personally lead island‑wide compliance checks to ensure vendors operating outside school gates are offering healthier alternatives in keeping with the 2023 School Nutrition Policy.

 

Blackman framed the initiative as a critical public‑health intervention, stressing that Barbados continued to face a “non‑communicable disease epidemic” and that the habits children formed now would shape the nation’s future health.

 

But the vendors working daily at the school gate told Barbados TODAY the shift towards healthier snacks is not as straightforward as policymakers may hope.

 

Blackman insisted the compliance effort would be firm but fair, stressing that the aim was a necessary public‑health intervention, not an attack. He plans to personally drive around schools to observe what is being sold “face to face”, acknowledging that his own childhood diet was not always the healthiest.

 

“This now must be a whole‑of‑country approach,” he said. “If you are going to sell to our school children, sell them healthy items… because ultimately — the whole country pays the cost.”

 

But as vendors continue to navigate children’s preferences, parents’ choices and the economic reality of selling what moves fastest, it remains to be seen whether healthier habits can truly take hold.

laurynescamilla@barbadostoday.bb