Tue | Oct 7, 2025

Gov’t rolls out nutrition policy for schools

Published:Saturday | May 10, 2025 | 12:08 AM

The National School Nutrition Policy, which sets out clear principles and actions to promote healthy eating in all Jamaican schools, was tabled in the Senate yesterday.

Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon, who tabled the document in the Upper House, said the policy would ensure all students have access to safe, nutritious foods and limit the sale and promotion of sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods within schools.

The policy is also intended to strengthen the school feeding programme, and foster partnerships among schools, farmers, vendors, and communities to build a culture of wellness.

“In my view, this policy reflects our moral duty, as well as a strategic imperative to provide every child, regardless of socioeconomic background, with safe, affordable, and nutritious food in a school environment that fosters health and learning,” she said.

According to Morris Dixon, the policy will be implemented in all early childhood, primary, secondary, and special education schools – both public and private – and aims to ensure children are healthy and ready to learn.

In the formulation of the policy, the minister said various stakeholders across the country were engaged, including teachers, principals, school boards, health professionals, nutritionists, psychologists and farmers.

The policy will be implemented on a phased basis over five years.

As part of the nutrition policy, the Government will take steps to strengthen and expand the Nutrition Products Limited programme and other school-based meal initiatives by improving meal quality and nutritional content, expanding breakfast offerings to reduce morning hunger and investing in kitchen infrastructure in schools where needed.

The education minister reiterated that the Government is investing more than $1 billion this year to provide breakfast for approximately 69,000 students in National School Learning and Intervention Plan (NSLIP) schools.

She said this is part of a broader $9-billion programme that aims to reach 200,000 children with a nutritious breakfast, snack and/or midday meal.

editorial@gleanerjm.com

National School Nutrition Policy

Information available on the health and nutrition status and lifestyle behaviours of schoolchildren in Jamaica points to the following as areas of concern:

i. Between 25 and 33 per cent of the school-age population in Jamaica arrives at school hungry or without having eaten anything on a given school day

ii. Short-term hunger (understood as lack of food intake before arriving to school on any given day) coexists with poor eating habits, such as an overconsumption of high sugar drinks and snacks of low nutrient density critical for growth, in the school-age population

iii. Overweight and obesity are twice as common as underweight in the school-age population and overweight and obesity increase rapidly with age during the school years

iv. Iron deficiency anaemia is a serious nutritional problem among the school-age population, especially in adolescents and young females. One in four (25%) women and girls aged 15 and older are anaemic.