FAO and Ministry of Health Team Up for Healthier Student Population
13/01/2023
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago – School feeding programmes play a key role in helping children realize their potential. The provision of healthy, balanced meals daily improves both health and educational outcomes by ensuring students receive the nutrients they need to thrive.
For students in Trinidad and Tobago, school-feeding programmes are an important part of combatting food insecurity and promoting access to wholesome meals that in turn help to shift the pervasive trajectory of the impacts of chronic non-communicable diseases. Ensuring students have access to sustainable healthy diets is a feat that demands wide collaboration and pooling of resources which is especially important in the current economic environment marked by food supply shortages and an increased cost of living in the post-COVID 19 lockdown era.
With a commitment to the protection of the population’s health, the Ministry of Health together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and with the support of the Government of Mexico through the Resilient School Feeding Programmes sub-project under the Mexico-FAO-CARICOM Initiative: “Cooperation for Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change in the Caribbean” has been working to promote nutrition education and healthy diets, specifically within schools to develop a new culture and attitude toward healthy diets.
To advance this effort and the provision of healthy school meals, the project supported the drafting of the “National Nutrition Guidelines for Food Offered to Children in Schools”. Working in collaboration with a Technical Working Task Force made up of representatives from the National School Dietary Services Limited, Pan American Health Organization, University of the Southern Caribbean and other stakeholders in the health sector, the new draft school guidelines highlight several critical areas.
It will address the marketing, branding, promotion and sponsorship of “unhealthy”/low nutritional value foods in schools and school-related activities, establish limits for pre-packaged/ultra-processed foods with regards to sugar, sodium and particularly trans-fats and ensure healthier options for permitted beverages and menu ideas for meals, snacks and frozen treats. Implementation and monitoring of these new guidelines will be carried out by a specially established School Nutrition Task Force.
FAO National Project Coordinator for the Resilient School Feeding sub-project, Latoya Smith welcomes the progress made through the project indicating, "This is a step forward to ensure sustainability in adopting healthy eating practices nationally. Not only will this promote greater awareness of nutrition education in schools but also provide the support in practicing it."
Similarly, Chief Nutritionist and Head of Department for the Nutrition and Metabolism Division in the Ministry of Health, Michelle Ash shared, "The Ministry of Health, and particularly the Nutrition & Metabolism Division greatly appreciates the support and firm commitment of the FAO to team up for a healthier student population. Through the FAO's support, timely success was achieved in completion of the draft of the National Nutrition Guidelines for Food Offered to Children in Schools."
The draft guidelines, which were completed in November 2022, will be submitted for public consultation, with review from cafeteria owners, school officials and other stakeholders before being formalised and rolled out across Trinidad and Tobago.
For students in Trinidad and Tobago, school-feeding programmes are an important part of combatting food insecurity and promoting access to wholesome meals that in turn help to shift the pervasive trajectory of the impacts of chronic non-communicable diseases. Ensuring students have access to sustainable healthy diets is a feat that demands wide collaboration and pooling of resources which is especially important in the current economic environment marked by food supply shortages and an increased cost of living in the post-COVID 19 lockdown era.
With a commitment to the protection of the population’s health, the Ministry of Health together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and with the support of the Government of Mexico through the Resilient School Feeding Programmes sub-project under the Mexico-FAO-CARICOM Initiative: “Cooperation for Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change in the Caribbean” has been working to promote nutrition education and healthy diets, specifically within schools to develop a new culture and attitude toward healthy diets.
To advance this effort and the provision of healthy school meals, the project supported the drafting of the “National Nutrition Guidelines for Food Offered to Children in Schools”. Working in collaboration with a Technical Working Task Force made up of representatives from the National School Dietary Services Limited, Pan American Health Organization, University of the Southern Caribbean and other stakeholders in the health sector, the new draft school guidelines highlight several critical areas.
It will address the marketing, branding, promotion and sponsorship of “unhealthy”/low nutritional value foods in schools and school-related activities, establish limits for pre-packaged/ultra-processed foods with regards to sugar, sodium and particularly trans-fats and ensure healthier options for permitted beverages and menu ideas for meals, snacks and frozen treats. Implementation and monitoring of these new guidelines will be carried out by a specially established School Nutrition Task Force.
FAO National Project Coordinator for the Resilient School Feeding sub-project, Latoya Smith welcomes the progress made through the project indicating, "This is a step forward to ensure sustainability in adopting healthy eating practices nationally. Not only will this promote greater awareness of nutrition education in schools but also provide the support in practicing it."
Similarly, Chief Nutritionist and Head of Department for the Nutrition and Metabolism Division in the Ministry of Health, Michelle Ash shared, "The Ministry of Health, and particularly the Nutrition & Metabolism Division greatly appreciates the support and firm commitment of the FAO to team up for a healthier student population. Through the FAO's support, timely success was achieved in completion of the draft of the National Nutrition Guidelines for Food Offered to Children in Schools."
The draft guidelines, which were completed in November 2022, will be submitted for public consultation, with review from cafeteria owners, school officials and other stakeholders before being formalised and rolled out across Trinidad and Tobago.