Education officials are sticking with a soft approach to the Barbados School Nutrition Policy, opting for collaboration over penalties despite ongoing compliance gaps, they told the National Nutrition Conference on Wednesday.
Authorities are not yet in a position to police or penalise vendors operating outside school gates, even as concerns remain about the availability of unhealthy food options, said education officer with responsibility for the policy, Nicole Elliott.
Assistant Nutrition Officer at the National Nutrition Centre, Brian Payne. (SM)
Elliott said: “We are not in a place where we are policing or kind of punishing persons on the outside of schools. However, we are there to work with them.”
Instead, the Ministry of Education is preparing to host a vendor orientation on April 18 aimed at bridging the gap between what is currently being sold and what the policy requires.
Elliott explained that approved suppliers have already been invited to participate, with the session expected to focus on improving access to compliant products and equipping vendors with techniques to transition towards healthier offerings.
“This orientation is there for us to kind of have a mediation between them and ourselves on how we would want them to help us to help the nation’s children,” she said, noting that the shift towards full compliance will take time.
The School Nutrition Policy, which governs what can be sold within and around school environments, has seen partial success since its rollout. Officials have previously reported that approximately 85 per cent of schools are compliant with standards relating to sugary drinks, but compliance for snacks remains significantly lower, hovering around 45 per cent.
Elliott noted that full compliance has not yet been achieved, particularly in relation to snacks, and pointed to challenges beyond the school compound.
“We haven’t seen full compliance as it relates to the snacks as yet, and this is solely because we still have the external environment that will impact the internal environment,” she said.
She further noted that improving compliance will require greater coordination across multiple areas, including increased availability of approved snack options, stronger supply chains, and closer collaboration with the agriculture sector.
“There are schools like Ellerton who have been growing and selling items to the community. If we can have that type of initiative spiral out into other schools, then we’ll be able to see better compliance because there’ll be more access to healthier options,” Elliott added.
Responding to questions about whether the government should move beyond policy into legislation to address rising rates of childhood obesity and non-communicable diseases, Elliott said authorities are not yet ready to take a more aggressive approach.
“I don’t think that we are at a point yet that we need to get to be that aggressive,” she said. “When it comes to public health, things don’t happen in six months or one year. It will take time.”
She stressed that changing eating habits and mindsets requires a gradual process, particularly given longstanding dietary patterns.
“We have to just change things gradually and just give them an opportunity to work,” Elliott said, adding that while progress is desired, expectations of immediate results are unrealistic.
Her position comes against the backdrop of growing concern about rising non-communicable diseases and childhood obesity, with officials acknowledging that what children eat both inside and outside of school plays a significant role.
Last December, Minister of Education Transformation Chad Blackman said the ministry intended to extend monitoring beyond school compounds, noting that vendors just outside school gates were undermining the policy by offering items that contradict the standards enforced within schools.
At the time, he said he would personally lead compliance checks, but indicated that the approach would prioritise guidance rather than punishment.
That approach remains in place, with officials continuing to emphasise collaboration over enforcement.
Further supporting that position, Assistant Nutrition Officer at the National Nutrition Centre, Brian Payne, said Government’s broader strategy is focused on creating an environment that makes healthy choices easier, rather than placing the burden solely on individuals.
“We have moved away from this idea of individual responsibility where everything rests on the individual,” Payne said.
He pointed to a suite of public health measures, including the School Nutrition Policy, the planned restriction of trans fats, and smoking bans in public spaces, as part of efforts to reshape the national food environment.
“The idea here is that we are trying to create an enabling environment so that Barbadians can actually not have to make an unhealthy choice, but the environment is conducive towards making a healthy choice,” he said.
Payne noted that while Barbados continues to grapple with high rates of non-communicable diseases and obesity, the policies now being implemented are intended to gradually reverse those trends.
(SM)
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