Big school bidders hold up school canteen policy

by Carol Aloysius

The implementation of the school canteen policy has been delayed due to issues with big school bidders, Health Ministry sources said.

"The drafting of the new canteen policy has been a multi-sectoral effort involving several line ministries and Health and Education Ministries. However, we need to resolve some issues with those who run the canteens, especially in schools with large numbers of students," Community Physician, Family Health Bureau Dr. Ayesha Lokubalasuriya told the Sunday Observer.

"Implementing the new policy in small schools with a few students, does not pose a problem for us. Our main problem is to implement it in schools with large numbers of students", she said.

According to Health Ministry sources, these schools usually call for tenders to run their canteens. Successful bidders are charged fifty cents a child per day. To cover their costs, canteen owners serve rolls and pastries which are more expensive than locally grown gram and cowpea as they are more popular with children.

They said to prevent this practice the Health Ministry was now seeking the co-operation of parents to persuade bidders to agree to serve healthy and less expensive food before running the canteens.

"Unhealthy diets are the main cause for the sharp rise of early non communicable diseases. We hope to change this by serving nutritious meals in schools.

School heads have already been directed to strictly enforce the new policy when it is implemented", Dr. Lokubalasuriya said.