A health advocate has raised alarm over the continued sale of unhealthy food products by vendors outside schools, undermining a national effort to combat childhood obesity.
Despite the implementation of a National School Nutrition Policy, the lack of enforcement for off-campus vendors threatens to undo the progress made in promoting healthier eating habits among students, Francine Charles, programme manager for the Childhood Obesity Prevention Programme at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB) said.
She told Barbados TODAY: “There has been quite a bit of work to push things through, and as you know at the end of 2024, our canteen concessionaires are showing pretty decent compliance in terms of trying to support the policy. The problem that we do have is that while the document identifies the need for vendors immediately outside of the schools to be compliant to the policy, this has not actually been effected.
“The real issue is that if immediately outside of the schools, the vendors are selling anything they wish, it brings us back to right where we started [with] children having access during school hours to unhealthy foods and drinks, and it really impacts the canteen concessionaires and vendors on the inside of the schools that are trying to be compliant. So it has the possibility to really push back the work that has been achieved so far.”
Charles noted that while the government and other stakeholders have been working closely together to fix the current issue, the lack of a proclaimed Vending Bill has caused a number of challenges.
She said: “Where we are working on things is with the Ministry of Energy and Business; they were responsible for the Vending Bill that was passed in 2021 and is yet to be proclaimed. We have met with them I must say at the highest levels, and we do understand some of the challenges with pushing that policy forward and getting that bill enacted, but we are really saying that something has to be done.”
Charles urged stakeholders to act swiftly to address the issue, emphasising the critical role of the School Nutrition Policy in promoting healthier lifestyles among students.
“The reality is that once the vendors do not feel the requirement to be compliant, because they are not within any particular capture, whether it be under the Ministry of Education, or the Ministry of Health, what is going to happen is that they will not be persuaded to move quickly towards compliance, and right now we need movement,” she said.
(SB)
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