Schools advocate for Healthy Diets: WFD 2019

Oct 21, 2019: Georgetown, Guyana- Healthy Diets for a Zero Hunger world was indeed the obvious mantra when looking at and sampling the delicious meals prepared by secondary students from ten different schools across Guyana. World Food Day 2019 was one of a kind this year. Celebrated on October 16, in fine style, it brought together not only agencies of the Ministry of Agriculture but also students, parents and teachers representing four Regions of Guyana.

The Healthy Meals Challenge, which was strategically introduced to the usual WFD Food Expo event in keeping with the theme this year, allowed the visiting public to be titillated by sumptuous and nutritious meals, planned and created by talented students across Guyana. The aim of the challenge was to have students themselves create recipes of a well-balanced, nutritious, affordable, simple and locally available meal. In addition, students were required to taking into consideration, portion sizes, nutritional content and calories count during their meal preparation and display.

The challenge saw the participation of the following schools: The New Central High, Number 8 Secondary -Region 5, President’s College, Annandale Secondary, Bladen Hall Secondary, La Bonne Intention Secondary, Golden Grove Secondary, Christiansburg Wismar Secondary, Cummings Lodge Secondary and Belladrum Secondary schools.

This event presented a unique opportunity for participation and collaboration of various agencies and groups at different stages of the contest. Agencies of the Ministry of Agriculture were tasked with adopting and providing mentorship to schools. Each agency was paired with a school of its choice and provide financial and other support that was necessary in preparation for the challenge. In return, the agencies now enjoys a closer relationship with the school, which now leads to other possible collaborative efforts between education and agriculture.

Competition was stiff and exciting as visitors of the WFD 2019 expo provided feedback on the meals which contributed to the final score. In addition, a panel of judges including nutritionists and educators were tasked with making the official pronouncement on the nutritional value of the meals and their “healthy” readiness. In the end, Golden Grove Secondary was awarded first place with its delicious “pigeon peas and moringa leaf rice” as the highlight dish. President’s College and the New Central High schools were awarded second and third places respectively and were equally competitive with their local meal creations like all of the school that participated in the competition.

This initiative was the first of many like activities that will be used to demonstrate to Guyanese that healthy eating is very achievable. It is also the hope that with the involvement of young people in such activities, they will be able to influence their peers and households to embrace healthy eating which is very important for the development and wellbeing of our society.