300 school cooks across Jamaica trained to prepare healthier meals for students

Three hundred school cooks across Jamaica have been trained by the HEART NSTA/Trust in how to better provide nutritious meals for students, Education Minister Senator Dana Morris Dixon has disclosed.

Speaking at this morning’s post-Cabinet press briefing, the Minister noted that this was part of the government’s efforts to combat the rise in obesity among the nation's children, and to decrease the risk of them developing non-communicable diseases (NCD).

“What was happening here is that we were teaching them how to provide nutritious meals, and so it's not chicken and rice every day,” she said.

She said the cooks, who are set to receive NCTVET certification as range cooks, were taught how to create new menus, find innovative ways to incorporate more vegetables into the meals, and how to deliver cost-effective, nutritious meals.

“We understand that it's not just us using words, it actually has to have action,” she said.

Jamaica approved its National School Nutrition Policy last year, with implementation set to take place over five years.

The World Health Organization's most recent global school-based student health survey reported that two out of 10 adolescents aged 13-17 were overweight and one out of 10 was obese.

Morris Dixon, in the meantime, also outlined that further emphasis will be placed on physical education in schools.

“We have to be very careful because the problems we see in older Jamaicans, the NCD problem, start at a young age. We understand that at the Ministry of Education and that's why we're taking steps like this,” she said.

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