Eden SDA is being MoRe Healthy

For the past few months, the Ministry of Education’s MoRe Campaign has been rolled out across the country, highlighting schools doing “more” through five main pillars. Schools across the region eagerly submitted their accounts of how they’ve surpassed expectations in these areas. Among the standout submissions was Eden S.D.A. Primary School, whose exemplary efforts we’re excited to showcase tonight. One particularly inspiring aspect of Eden S.D.A.’s commitment was its holistic approach to promoting healthy dietary habits among students. Their dedication to not just healthier eating, but a vegetarian lifestyle, caught our immediate attention. Sabreena Daly found out more in this week’s Look on the Bright Side.

 

Sabreena Daly

“Ava, what’s inside your burrito? “

 

Ava

“Beans, vegetables, cheese, meat.”

 

Sabreena Daly

“Meat? And you like it? Is it yummy?”

 

Ava

“Uh huh.”

 

Sabreena Daly

“And why do you like your burrito?”

 

Xaia

“I like it because it tastes nice.”

 

Reactions of approval from the student body as children munch their afternoon meal prepared by the school’s cafeteria. Only, Ava and Xaia have no idea that it’s not meat in their burrito.

 

Sabreena Daly

“What’s inside that burrito if there’s no meat? Because the burrito has meat in there.”

Brian Landero, Student, Eden SDA Primary School

“It has soy meat, um, coleslaw and beans.”

 

Eden SDA Primary School is one of forty primary schools across the country benefitting from the Ministry of Education’s Healthy Start school feeding program. The initiative was developed to ensure that every child receives a nourishing meal during the school day.

 

Kathleen Juan, National Coordinator for School Feeding, Ministry of Education
“Our students spend a lot of time on school campuses. So that’s our goal as a ministry to enable all of our campuses to make it easier for children to be healthy.”

 

The World Health Organization reports a significant rise in global obesity, affecting over one billion people, with rates doubling in adults and quadrupling in children and adolescents since 1990. While undernutrition persists as a major concern in regions like South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean faces the challenges of high rates of underweight and obesity. This was just one of the conditions in mind when the Ministry of Education considered a way to enforce healthier eating habits within schools, according to Kathleen Juan.

Kathleen Juan
“We offer the school the opportunity for every student in the school to get a free meal. Now, some schools are able to do that because they have the capacity with their kitchens and their cooks because we want every student to be getting the same meal and it’s a healthy meal. We’re looking to kind of Use positive peer pressure. Oh, all of the students are eating this, so I’ll eat it too. Even if I don’t really like fruits or vegetables, this is the school meal. It’s healthy. I’ll eat it. We are also working on the sugar, sweet and beverage ban pilot with the Ministry of Health. So that’s another component. We’re asking schools to stop selling cokes and sugar, sweets and beverages. Give the Children a healthier choice instead because we need these Children not only to be healthy now, but the choice choices and what they’re learning now is hopefully going to follow them into adulthood so that they are healthier adults.”

 

The implementation of this initiative could not come at a better time if you ask Eden SDA Primary School’s principal, Sharon Carr-Lopez.

 

Sharon Carr Lopez, Principal, Eden SDA Primary School

“Most of the time our kids used to come to school without eating because we do have kids who come from low income families. And so when we learned of it, we said, this is our chance. And so from January or January of this year, we started the feeding program with the help of the ministry. It has been a blessing.”

 

This was also an added opportunity for the school to enforce the spiritual belief that the healthiest meal is one without meat.

Sharon Carr Lopez
“So, one of the principles that we have for the Seventh day Adventist church, or schools around the world, is that we don’t offer meat on campus in most schools. We look at it because we want the child to be spiritually minded, we want the child to be healthy. And so we are used to more natural foods.”

 

Aidan Landero expressed that he was never big on eating his veggies, but with his school removing meat from the menu, he has grown accustomed to the change.

 

Aidan Landero, Student, Eden SDA Primary School

“Before, I didn’t really used to like veggies much, but, since they started giving it almost every day, it’s only natural that I started to like it. Sometimes I do miss the meat, but, since they give veggies and other stuff, they’re also very healthy, so I don’t really miss it too much.”

Kathleen Juan
“What we tell the principals is it’s okay if the kids aren’t really happy with it at first, but just keep providing them the chance, the opportunity to get more familiar with the fruits and the vegetables in the hopes that they will start accepting it because what we find is that the kids are telling us Well, we don’t get a lot of fruits and vegetables on our campus, so we don’t eat it during the day because it’s not there. We’re saying, give it to them, have it be there for them, let them make that choice, and you might be surprised by the kids, how much they are willing to accept it, and how much they enjoy it.”

 

Eden SDA Primary was also recognized for going the extra mile and adding an additional free meal for its student population of approximately three hundred. Every morning, each student gets to start the school day with a fruit juice or a fruit bowl.

Sharon Carr Lopez
“When the feeding program came in we said well this is our chance, let’s do the juicing or the fruit slices as well in the morning so that the kids can have. We have kids who come to school and they don’t eat. Ms. Juan mentioned that we could have chosen which meal to have given the students. But we chose lunch because most times, kids don’t have the time to go home and eat. And even if they go home and eat, there’s nothing there because nobody’s at home. And so we prefer doing lunch for them. And so, having that juice in the morning or a healthy snack and lunch, I mean, you can’t ask for more, right?”

 

And this all encompassing idea of health and wellness does not stop there. From a playground for the energetic children, to backyard gardening that ensures the feeding program’s sustainability, Eden SDA Primary is an example of doing more and being more healthy. Looking on the Bright Side, I’m Sabreena Daly.