Stakeholders are taking steps to remove unhealthy food options from the school canteens.
Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw said with the new School Nutrition Policy approved by Cabinet, they are going all out to ensure that local but healthy foods will be used to feed the nation’s youth.
“I recommend that we rely on foods that are grown locally and regionally in the preparation of lunches and snacks for our school-aged children. We need to think about how we can prepare local foods such as breadfruit, potatoes, eddoes, yams and green bananas so that they become the foods of choice for our young people,” the Chief Education officer said.
She was speaking at a virtual Vendors Training Session put on by the Childhood Obesity Prevention Programme of the Heart & Stroke Foundation, on Saturday.
Archer-Bradshaw also raised the issue of high salt, fat and sugar intake, which she said can lead to children being overweight and be the main cause of cardiovascular diseases.
Chairman of the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition Dr Kia Lewis opened her presentation by asking,”Are we setting our children up for success?”
“I want to say that the decisions that we are making for our children now is going to affect their health in adulthood and collectively it is going to affect the future health of our nation,” she pointed out.
“The health decisions that we are teaching our children in their formative years, that often lay the foundation for the health and practices that they are going to continue into adulthood and they are going to pass it onto their children.This is very much generational,” Dr Lewis said.
In May 2022, the Cabinet of Barbados approved the School Nutrition Policy and the Ministry of Education will be implementing strategies in the new school year to make the school environment a healthier one. (MR)
