As Caribbean students start to return to the classroom across the region, an ambitious campaign promoting nutritious food in schools hopes to get them healthier. The six-week digital campaign, ‘#ActOnFacts – The Food in Schools Matters’, encourages public and policymaker support for the introduction of policies limiting the sale and marketing of foods full of sugar, fats and salt in and around schools, while increasing the availability of healthy foods and drinking water.
Spearheaded by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), the campaign brings together a raft of partners: UNICEF, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB), the Heart Foundation of Jamaica (HFJ), the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN) with the technical collaboration of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Children spend much of their time at school where unhealthy food and sweet drinks – more available and often cheaper than their healthy counterparts – are heavily marketed. Eating habits established when young can last a lifetime and one in three Caribbean children is already living with overweight and obesity. Over consumption of unhealthy food is also the number one driver of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
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