Parents are being pressed to provide healthier food options in their children’s lunch boxes for school, especially at the early childhood level, to encourage and promote good nutrition.

Speaking at a consultation session for the National School Nutrition Policy Green Paper, principal at Foga Road Infant School Suzette Baker Tulloch raised concern about unhealthy meals being packed for children.

Further, she suggested that teachers be given the power to prevent students from having the unhealthy foods brought to school.

“For the babies, they come in with their snacks and we have observed on numerous occasions where we have to reach out to the parents. Please do not put sausage Monday, sausage Tuesday, sausage Wednesday,” said Baker Tulloch during the session held at Merl Grove High School’s auditorium on Tuesday.

“We need their support, especially at the early childhood level where lunch boxes are filled with everything. As a matter of fact… give us that power that if a child comes in with items in the lunch bags that is against the policy of the school, that we be given the latitude to secure it or say ‘Johnny, Mary, you will not have this now, take the water that we have and ensure you eat the breakfast, ensure you eat the lunch’,” she said.

But Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton argued that preventing children from eating foods provided by their parents would not be a good move.

He said the schools will have to accept that there are certain instances where students have no choice to eat the meals provided due to health conditions and other instances.

“We can’t take away the child’s food. I can’t support that; that isn’t right; that can’t happen. We did say also that sometimes where you have special provisions of dietary requirements and if a child comes and says ‘Because I am diabetic, I have to consume x or because of religion — whatever it is, the school is going to have to manage that process and make whatever exception there is,” he said.

Instead, Tufton said there are other alternatives to manage better food choices for children.

“The longer-term impact of what parents pack in their lunch bag is not just your burden, it’s going to be our burden also. We are going to have to talk about it, we are going to have ads on TV and social media, we are going to have to give the children letters to take home. We are going to have to let the kids understand why it is important to them. There are many ways to achieve the objective,” he said.

— Brittny Hutchinson