Minister to ‘lead’ compliance checks of vendors outside school gates

In a bid to keep school campuses free of unhealthy sugary drinks and snacks, Minister of Educational Transformation Chad Blackman is to personally lead a check to ensure vendors outside school gates sell healthier items, he announced on Tuesday.

 

Stressing that the island was in the midst of a non-communicable disease (NCD) endemic, he said it was critical for students to have access to proper alternatives as childhood obesity continued to rise.

 

He insisted that the national effort would not be punitive but that it would be unwavering given the consequences of unhealthy eating patterns. He did not disclose when the islandwide assessment would begin but said it would start soon.

 

Blackman said the wider effort formed part of the government’s responsibility to ensure that nutritional standards inside schools were strengthened beyond the school fence, recalling long standing concerns about the quality of snacks sold only metres from classroom entrances.

 

He said: “Equally, the vendors have a responsibility. If you are going to sell to our school children, sell them healthy items. Nobody is stopping you from selling things, but you must sell them healthy items.”

 

“You really must not be selling items that go against what is of nutritional value to our children because ultimately the child, the family, the whole country pays the cost.”

 

The 2023 School Nutrition Policy which was introduced to curb sugary drinks and regulate the types of snacks and meals sold and consumed on school premises.

 

Blackman added that while schools were required to comply with rules governing the sale of soft drinks, high-sugar snacks and processed foods, the gap between policy and practice had widened because vendors just outside the compounds were not guided by the same standards.

 

“You cannot have a school nutrition policy saying in schools you must be compliant, you cannot sell this, you cannot sell that, but then a few feet away from the school you have vendors doing things that are counterproductive to what we are trying to achieve,” he said. “So this now must be a whole of country approach.”

 

Blackman stressed that his ministry valued the legacy and contribution of vendors, saying the ongoing effort was not an attack on the sector but a necessary public health intervention.

 

“I want to make it clear, this government continues to place tremendous value and importance on our vendors across the country. We have made it very very clear. But at the same time to whom much is given much is expected,” he said. “I want to use this occasion to say to our vendors, ensure that you sell things of nutrition to our children.”

 

He said he would adopt a hands-on role in the investigation. “I also plan to take a different approach where I will actually be driving around the country, around schools, looking to see face to face what is being sold around our schools and with my officers, of course, to see if it is in compliance with what is of acceptable nature according to the policy of what our children really should be having at their disposal.”

 

The minister insisted that the exercise would rest on fairness and dialogue. Asked whether there would be penalties for non compliance, he said: “It is not about only consequences. One of the things we have to also do is to reason. And certainly if I as minister accompany my team and the necessary professionals who monitor health are saying look, you are selling A or B and it is not in compliance with what is of benefit, we reason with them.

 

“So it is also about having a national conversation. My role as minister is not to break up and lick down. It would not be a heavy handed approach but firm. Sometimes you have to be firm in your love.”

 

He acknowledged concerns about the cost of healthier options, arguing that addressing the crisis required cultural transformation and new business thinking. “It is also a business opportunity for young entrepreneurs, whether in the formal or informal sector, to come up with ways that meet the healthy requirement of what we are trying to do. The entire country must now rally behind the crisis. How do we take this crisis and turn it into an opportunity.”

 

Blackman added that he too had grown up eating unhealthy snacks and was determined to lead by example. He reminded the public that the policy push formed part of a broader commitment made with the Heart and Stroke Foundation to build a healthier generation. “I certainly will continue to be a champion on ensuring that we can now have a healthy environment in our schools.”

sheriabrathwaite@barbadosotoday.bb