World Nutrition Week
Kuyasa - As part of this year’s National Nutrition Week celebration, the Northern Cape Province together with Mpumalanga were elected by the Department of Basic Education to host the national event under the theme, ‘Healthy eating at school’.
The province celebrated its day at the S.S Madikane Primary School located in the Pixley Ka Seme district recently.
This year’s celebration focused on curbing obesity and extreme gain weight by young people which in the long run can cause different chronic sicknesses such as High Blood Pressure and Sugar Diabetes.
Speaking at the event School Nutrition national coordinator Lydia Maotoe encouraged food handlers and parents to prepare healthy food for the learners. She said a healthy eating learner is most likely to achieve impressive academic record at the end of the year.
“Colour is cool; it is about eating a variety of food. A variety of foods means eating more than one type of food at each meal, eating different foods on different days and preparing food in different healthy ways chosen from the from the food groups, so this the message we are sending to schools and parents. Learners who bring lunch boxes to school are encourage carrying healthy lunch boxes with nutritious meals. Healthy food is not only sandwiches, but other food as well as indigenous food”, Maotoe said.
She further urged tuck-shops owners to also sell food with proteins and vitamins, “We also encourage School tuck shop operators and vendors to promote the availability of healthy food in school premises. This is a role of School Management Teams (SMTs), School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and parents to convey the message to them in ensuring their schools become a conducive and healthy environment”, she added.
As part of promoting healthy living-style schools are expected to use sports as a vital tool that can curb unnecessary weight gain and obesity.
Through the departmental programme, National Schools Nutrition Programme ( NSNP), a total of 256 087 leaners from both primary and high schools in the province are benefiting from the programme meanwhile 2896 learners from the special schools also have a fair share in this initiative, nationally the department caters for more than 9 million learners.