Mark Brantley: Our school meal programme designed to ensure nutritious meals daily

Premier of Nevis Mark Brantley shared a healthy meal sample served to the Primary school-aged children by the schools managed by the Department of Education in Nevis under the School Meals programme.

Nevis: Premier of Nevis Mark Brantley shared a healthy meal sample served to the Primary school-aged children by the schools managed by the Department of Education in Nevis under the School Meals programme.

Nutrition is essential at every age, but to grow strong and healthy, it requires proper meals for children at the age of adolescent according to prescribed time frames. Envisioning this, Premier Brantley said, “This is to ensure the chicken eat nutritious meals daily.”

“A sample of today’s healthy meal served to our Primary school-aged children in #Nevis each day under our school meals programme designed to ensure our chicken eats nutritious meals daily #KeepTheMomentum.” He tweeted.

Renell Daniel, School Meals Coordinator within the Department of Education of the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), said the new initiative added that the programme is dubbed as “Tour around the Caribbean.”

Each Thursday, the cooks make cuisines from all other nations in the Caribbean. She explained one way the programme is managing pre-school and primary school children engaged & interested in various flavours of the Caribbean.

“We want to introduce our children to diverse cultures as well as different parts of our Caribbean,” she stated.

Daniel said the programme also attempts to introduce the children to locally grown fruits and vegetables by combining them into meals as much as possible.

Nevis School Meal programme is among the most distinguished globally; it sets a phenomenal example for others.

“I think this is a comprehensive programme where our children can enjoy our culture and our local foods side by side. We also have many fruits that would be donated by the Department of Agriculture that we would serve alongside the meals if they are in season. If our local farmers give any fruits, our cooks would cut those up and serve in a presentable way for the children to enjoy.

“We found that several of the children have not tried these fruits or vegetables at home, but when they see all of their classmates eating these fruits & vegetables, they are so much more willing to try them,” she said.

While the School Meals Programme sources farm-fresh produce from local farmers & vendors, schools also grow some of their own food, “We also depend on our gardens.” 

Notably, Premier Brantley always focused on the local food; he himself shares their own farm vegetables on Twitter posts. 

“All schools have some kind of garden that would improve what we serve each day, but we hope to do more this term in terms of our school gardens,” the Coordinator stated.

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