pb #2 sfps - nurturing healthy eating - final

7/30/2019 PB #2 SFPs - Nurturing Healthy Eating - FINAL

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““T T hhee s soolluut t i i oonn i i s s cclleeaar r :: llooccaall f f oooodd f f oor r llooccaall cchhi i llddr r eenn ccr r eeaat t i i nn g g llooccaall mmaar r kkeet t s s f f oor r llooccaall f f aar r mmeer r s s..””

(Conway, 2012)

NNuurrttuurriinngg HHeeaalltthhyy FFoooodd CChhooiicceess – – SScchhooooll FFeeeeddiinngg JJuullyy 22001122

Understanding the Concept

‘School feeding’ (WFP)

- provision of meals or snacks at school to reduce

the hunger of children during the school day;

- the provision of in-school meals only;

- sometimes classified in terms of objective, i.e.,:

(a) take-home” food rations provided aseconomic incentives to families (or foster

families, or other child care institutions) in return

for a child’s regular attendance at school,

(b) food provided to adults or youth who

attend literacy or vocational training programs,

(c) food for pre-school activities with an

educational component,

(d) any one or more of the following at-school

meals: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, or

dinner

Contents:

1 Understanding the

Concept.

2 Should Government

get involved in SFPs -

school feeding

programmes?

3 SFPs can influence

healthy food

choices!

4 Policy Intervention

Critical Control

Points.

5 Bottom line!

6 Recommended

reading

Students in Aranaputa (the Guyana’s

interior), snacking on home-made peanut

butter and cassava biscuits, provided under

the national school feeding programme.

(Photo: Ravena Gildharie)

Many outstanding sons of the soil owe their

sustenance to the Barbados School Meals

Program piloted in 1963 with six primary

schools.

(Posted by David Jan 25, 2010,

http://bajan.wordpress.com

Improved nutrition

contributes to healthy

citizens, the base of

productive activities

and economic

development.

Early-life health (i.e.,

infants and children) is

the base for human

capital formation.

Governments’ are

recognizing SFPs as a

strategic building

block for both social

welfare and human

capital development.

Note:

nutrition impacts citizens

at all stages in life, but

especially at early-life

stages;

obesity, Type-2

diabetes, hypertensionand high cholesterol are

serious public health

issues affecting children,

linked to poor nutrition;

government school

feeding (SFP) is a key

strategy to influence

and nurture healthy

food choices and early-

life health.



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SFPs can influence healthy food choices!

Experiences in the Caribbean with early SFPs indicated that food choices

among children were shifting towards a food culture different from traditiona

eating patterns and in some cases, these SFPs inadvertently contributed to the

evolution of poor nutrition choices and eating patterns. This was because these

programmes were very dependent on the generosity of international donors

with the school meal consisting of mainly white flour bread, cheese or butter

and skimmed milk. According to one Caribbean advocate, these early SFPs

were founded more on the ‘belly full’ than a ‘healthy fed’ philosophy.

Despite the relative costs and driven by concerns over rising prices of imported

foods, practitioners are increasingly exploring options for increasing the loca

content of school meals and regulating foods that are sold in schools. E.g., in

Grenada, there is a concerted effort to ensure that children are fed a balanced

meal from the six food groups, including use of available local foods. While in

Trinidad, more than 50% of the meat is imported, vegetables used in schoomeals are 100% local.

If guidelines are well established, if meals are prepared through innovative and

creative uses of local foods, and with the support from parents and

complementary nutrition and health policies, over time, SFPs will influence food

choices towards a healthy and balance option of local and imported foods.

‘Nursery children benefiting from Government's school feeding programme.Source: http://www.gina.gov.gy/archive/daily/b110813.html

There is need for

product development

and transformation to

meet consumer

requirements for safe,

nutritious and

convenient foods is

essential. This relates

especially to options for

marketing healthy foods

to children and (inparticular) their

parents.(Helen Constance Robertson,

Director of School Feeding

Programme, Ministry of Education,

Jamaica (ART 2011))



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Policy Intervention Critical Control Points (PICCP):

building blocks.

The HACCP concept (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) can be applied to define

the building blocks for using SFPs as a tool to influence healthy food choices among

children.

The Hazard:

The emergence of CNCDs in children and youth populations in the Caribbean is

alarming and is a risk to development!

As we move into a global knowledge economy, human capital development

represents one of the most lucrative avenues for development. For small developing

states, with few natural resources, human capital will come to represent a major

resource for sustaining development. Being unhealthy limits the ability to work

productively and/or the ability and incentives to invest in human capital. Hunger and

ill-health compromise the capacity of children to learn! An uneducated and unskilled

youth population is unproductive and will compromises development!

The Analysis:

A 2010 survey of Body Mass Index (BMI), conducted by the Caribbean Food and

Nutrition Institute (CFNI)/PAHO), revealed that childhood obesity is on the rise in

Trinidad and Tobago. Approximately a quarter of primary and secondary school age

children, (24.6%), in Trinidad and Tobago are overweight or obese. The school based

Diabetes Screening project being conducted by Prof. S. Teelucksingh further revealed

the existence of Type II Diabetes, often referred to as adult onset Diabetes, in school

aged children. Overweight and obesity are risk factors for Type II Diabetes. These are

indicators that the current chronic disease epidemic is only going to worsen if critical

preventive and health promoting action is not taken urgently. (www.news.gov.tt)

The RFNSP confirmed that many Caribbean countries are experiencing a shift in nutrition patterns that has resulted in

increasing rates of obesity, which in turn has contributed to an increase in nutrition-related CNCDs including diabetes

and hypertension. In the last decade, CNCDs, described as a ‘major public health enemy’ have become major

causes of illness and death in the Caribbean. These diseases are reported to consume the largest percentage of

financial and human resources allocated to the health sector. It is estimated that by 2020, deaths from CNCDs in the

Caribbean could double, affecting particularly, the poor, disadvantaged and vulnerable, including children.

CFNI reported that in various Caribbean countries fat and obese children account for as much as 15% of their

population group. Research has linked rising obesity rates to related increases in consumption of fatty foods, snacks

soft drinks, high-energy foods and drinks. Sugar and fat are strongly implicated in this worrying trend. Prof

Teelucksingh advised that “with the chronic disease we have to move away from the medical model. It applies toacute illnesses; we need to change from the medica l model to a sociological model”.1 School feeding is a critica

element of this sociological model and response. This is well recognised in the Caribbean, where SFPs emerged out o

efforts of both public and private, including religious, groups and organizations, to assist in the cognitive development

of children, especially the under privileged.

1 ‘Targeted Regional Response to Public Health Enemy Number One - CNCDs’ by Lisa Bayley; Caribbeannewsnow.com; Last

Update: Oct 25, 2010. http://www.islandjournal.net

Feeding local

Minister of Agriculture and

Fisheries, Hon. Roger

Clarke, said the Ministry

will be working withfarmers to get more local

produce into the Nationa

School Feeding

Programme to reduce

cost and improve the

nutrition of students. “Our

farmers are going to be

asked to work in clusters

to provide some of the

nutrition for our school

children. We (are) going

(to) stop them from

drinking bag juice and

eating cheese trix. We

want to give them some

real Jamaican foods,

Jamaican fruits “

‘Agriculture Ministry to get

more local produce intoschools’ June 8, 2012 by Chr

Patterson, JIS Reporter.

www.jis.gov.jm/news/list/3087



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Some Critical Control Points:

Know the Basics!

A critical starting point must be a determination of the ‘nutrition needs’ of

children, an assessment of whether such needs are adequately provided in

the homes. Based on these results, then an identification of the most

vulnerable and the definition of a mix of options and tools to ‘alleviate

hunger and under/malnutrition’ among children. School-feeding, if done

right, is one to directly address the problem.

The World Food Programme (WFP) offers 8 Standards as guides for building

quality and sustainable SFPs. The WFP advises that these standards are also

relevant for governments and NGO partners in the design and

implementation of high-quality, sustainable and relevant SFPs. It is important

that the transition to sustainable, nationally owned programmes requires

that school feeding be mainstreamed in national policies, strategies,

programmes, financing mechanisms and administrative structures.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO), also provides a Toolkit that sets out seven step-by-step guidelines

that will enable teachers and administrators to enhance the impact of SFPson education. The guidelines include sections on a rationale for addressing

nutrition and health issues for schoolchildren, the potential benefits of SFPs

for education, and recommendations for building up effective SFPs as an

integral part of a package of nutrition and health interventions for school-

age children.

“We have ¼ million children in schools; almost 900 schools;

about 15,000 teachers. We provide meals to schools via

97,173 lunches and 56,000 breakfasts every day. School

kitchens and cafeterias are also being examined,

including if soft drinks should be sold in schools since there

are about 450 calories/ soft drink.

If we start the education right here in schools, we can

impact almost ¾ million of our population with the right

education. This is then spread to the wider society since

interventions at the school-aged stage will result in life-long

lessons being learnt.”

(The Hon. Dr Tim Goopeesingh, Minister of Education, Trinidad and

Tobago. August 30, 2011. www.news.gov.tt)

8 Standards for Quality and

Sustainable SFPs

Standard 1: Sustainability

Standard 2: Sound alignme

with the national policy

framework;

Standard 3: Stable funding

and budgeting;

Standard 4: Needs-based,

cost-effective quality

programme design;

Standard 5: Strong

institutional arrangements f

implementation, monitoring

and accountability;

Standard 6: Strategy for loc

production and sourcing;

Standard 7: Strong

partnerships and inter-secto

coordination;

Standard 8: Strong

community participation

and ownership

(Source: WFP 2009)

Teach a child to farm, and he will feed himse

(Photo: Raynard Burnside, The Bahamas)



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Involve Parents!

Moving from the medical to a sociological model begins with parents,

particularly mothers and continues with the school system. Parents play an

essential role in helping shape children's eating habits. However, as

recognised by Eleanore Lambert of the Dominica Food and Nutrition

Council (DFNC) ‘there are different varieties of parents’. This is simple and

yet profound in its meanings and implications for policy. Partnering with

parents us key and must recognise the need to also re-educate and enable

access to healthy food choices for the parents and by extension, the family.

Some simple parenting tips to help children eat well and learn to enjoy

nutritious foods include ‘accentuating the positives’, i.e., focus on eating

nutrient-rich foods instead of what not to eat and using Use positive

messages that let children know that all foods fit into a healthful diet; there

are no "good" or "bad" foods. The key is moderation.2 This reinforces the call

by Lisa Hunt, Nutritionist, Ministry of Health, Saint Lucia that “ in promoting

foods for healthy choices, people need to understand WHY; don’t giv e

them half the story!” For any long-term nutrition security solution, cultivating

good eating habits in the home was a good and essential place to start

and build from.

Start young!

It is virtually a universally accepted conclusion that children are truly

‘ground zero’ where nurturing a culture of healthy eating are concerned.

What is not yet universally accepted is the notion that children should be

fed by schools (through government intervention), as opposed to in schools

and in homes (provided for by families). However, evidence from aroundthe world and in the Caribbean provides a strong enough case for

government-led school feeding programmes. There is also strong

recognition that ‘good health’, starts with ‘good feeding’ at the early life

stage – from the womb through to the formative years - at least in the

twenties!

As more and more young children are being afflicted with lifestyle diseases

previously thought to affect only adults, the need to intervene ‘from young’

have become absolutely critical. There are no short-cuts or substitutes!

School feeding programmes are therefore an important tool/vehicle totackle child health and by extension, nurture a culture of healthy food

choices for lifelong health benefits. The immediate need for SFPs is to feed

hungry children and get poor/vulnerable children into the schools, to

provide them with education and as a place to get them fed, as well!

2 More tips can be found in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of

Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government

Printing Office, January 2005, http://school.fueluptoplay60.com/tools/nutrition-

education/view.php?id=23945657

‘The health of the region is

the wealth of the region’

Achieving such health can

only be built and sustained

by nurturing healthy food

choices in children.

Parents: know your child's

changing nutrient needs for

their early life health. Basic

nutritional needs should be

met both at home andschool.

Parents should:

Offer 5 servings of fruits

and vegetables a day

Choose healthy sources o

protein (e.g. lean meat,

nuts and eggs)

Serve whole-grain breadsand cereals because they

are high in fibre

Broil, grill or steam foods

instead of frying them

Limit fast food and junk

food

Offer water and milk

instead of sugary fruit

drinks/sodas

http://school.fueluptoplay60.com/tools/nutrition-






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The right to food is universal!

ALL families should be afforded

the resources and capacity to exercise this right!

Build Bridges!

Nutrition is the bridge between agriculture and health.3 SFPs

provide an enviable opportunity to teach and enhance

understanding of the concept of nutrition and its importance

to good health and to instil, reinforce and nurture a culture of

healthy food choices from young. Therefore, enhancing

understanding of the nexus between agriculture – food

production – and health – via nutrition – is also critical.

For Caribbean countries, food production policies have

generally not been informed by nutrition policy. In fact,

nutrition policy itself has been weak, within the context of an

overall health and wellness policy. The former Caribbean Food

and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) has promoted the food group

approach to a healthy diet, built on balancing intake of foods

categorised into six groups.

Importantly, these six groups emphasised foods that have traditionally been produced in the region. Despite

these efforts, the bridge between agriculture – food production - and health – nutrition- continues to be

incomplete in some areas, and disconnected in others. For example, while the region produces a diversity of

fruits at affordable prices, consumption of fruits is way below the recommended daily intake.

Also although the region is no longer a large producer of oils and fats (90% of these products are built on

imports of soya bean and other imported oils), consumption of fats has been measured to be excessive. And

while a few countries are major producers of sugar (an important export industry), sugar is nowhere listed as a

major food group, yet consumption is also excessive! Excessive consumption of the latter two ‘foods’ is strongly

associated with the rise of CNCDs.

Understandably, there is the desire to also use school feeding programmes as a vehicle for stimulating sales

and growth in local food production. While important, the experiences of several Caribbean countries

indicate that making the SFP-local agriculture link is fraught with challenges. This is partly because in today’s

globalised world, the healthy food choice can no longer be constrained by, or conditioned on only what is

produced locally. This is especially because ‘healthy’ locally produced food choices either continue to be

offered in a manner that does not inspire consumer acceptability, or priced out of the income bracket of a

large segment of the population, or they are either just not available on a consistent enough basis to build

consumer loyalty.

Despite these challenges, there is great value in building bridges between agriculture and health by firmly

integrating nutrition imperatives into SFPs and by investing in production, distribution, promotion and marketing

of foods within the six food groups that can be supplied by the region.

3 European food and nutrition policies in action / edited by Nancy Milio and Elisabet Helsing, European Series, No. 73; ISBN 92 890

1337 0. http://www.euro.who.int

Maroon child in Asigron, an agriculture community

in the Suriname interior Photo: Maureen Silos



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Recommended Readings:

:

Bleakley, H. 2010. Health, Human Capital and Development; Annual Review of

Economics. <http://popcenter.uchicago.edu/pdf/arec18.pdf>

Buhl, A. 2011. Meeting Nutritional Needs Through School Feeding: A Snapshot of

Four African Nations. www.gcnf.org/library/Meeting-Nutritional-Needs-Through-

School-Feeding.pdf

Fan, S. and Brzeska, J. 2011.The Nexus between Agriculture and Nutrition: DoGrowth Patterns and Conditional Factors Matter? 2020 Conference: Leveraging

Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health. www.ifpri.org

Hawkes. C. A. and Ruel, M.E. 2011. Value Chains for Nutrition - 2020 Conference:

Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health, February 10-12, 2011;

New Delhi, India.

Conway. Sir Gordon, 2012, ‘Investing for the Future with Home-Grown School

Feeding”, Huffington Post, February 7, 2012;

World Bank, 2009, Rethinking School Feeding - Social Safety Nets, Child

Development and the Education Sector ’, by Donald Bundy, Carmen Burbano,

Margaret Grosh, Aulo Gelli, Matthew Jukes, and Lesley Drake- ISBN:

9780821379745,World Food Programme, 2009, ‘Feed Minds, Change Lives -School Feeding:

Highlights and New Directions’

http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsroom/wfp204

709.pdf

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2004,

Guidelines to Develop and Implement School Feeding Programmes that Improve

Education ‘FRESH Tools for Effective School Health First Edition’ 2004.

http://www.unesco.org/education/fresh

Nurturing Healthy Food Choices – School Feeding

Bottom Line

Children eat with their eyes!! Healthy food choices must be nurtured, from young, starting

in the homes and continuing at pre-schools, primary and secondary schools.

All families are not equal. There are several under-privileged children living in Caribbeancommunities with limited access to food and unable to make healthy food choices.

Some form of Government intervention is both expected and necessary. In most

countries, a direct intervention is school feeding (SFP) a vehicle to both feed hungry bellies

and fuel healthy bodies.

SFP is a strategy to directly impact at least 3 socio-economic development goals starting

at ground zero – under-privileged and vulnerable children: (1) alleviating their hunger and

malnutrition; (2) improving child health and well-being and (3) providing them with access

to education.

Good parenting, which nurtures and provides healthy choices, is the best first option.

Research/

Content:

Brent Theophille

Jeanelle Clarke

Editor: Diana Francis

The views and opinions

expressed herein, errors and

omissions are those of the

author and not necessarily

those of Inter-American

Institute for Cooperation on

Agriculture (IICA), the

Technical Centre for

Agriculture and Rural

Cooperation (CTA) or the

Caribbean Regional

Agricultural Policy Network

(CaRAPN) an IICA-CTA

initiative in the Caribbean.

E-copy available on:

www.pn4ad.org

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