Healthy School Meals

Nowadays, people are giving more and more importance on healthy food for their children. Children need to eat nutritious food in order to develop well, both physically and mentally, particularly when they are in school. Many schools in Dhaka provide healthy meals for their students, while some have canteens or food shops where children can buy what they like. This week, Y&I takes a look at school meals and how wholesome they are for growing children.   

Tasnuba Binte Farazi, 15, is a student of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College. During her lunch break at school, she normally eats a home-cooked meal or snacks. “Most of the time, my parents give me homemade food. All our school branches have an outlet of ‘Fakruddin Biryani and Restaurant’. There, we can buy different types of snacks, like potato chops, ‘samosa’, ‘shingara’, etc. At our main branch (on Baily Road), they serve biryani as well. The price of these items starts from Taka 15,” she said. When this correspondent asked her whether such food items could be considered as healthy food, she appeared a little bit confused.

M Saiful, a teacher of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, explained: “Our school gates remain closed during recess. If any student does not bring food from home, then they can eat at the Fakruddin outlet we have on our school premises. The food they serve might not be as wholesome as homemade food, but we have to look at the practical situation.”

“In our country, especially in the city, people seem to care very little about the nutritional value of foods. Eating fast food has become a trend. Of course, we try to inform our students about eating healthy. But I believe we need to include information on how eating fast food regularly can harm our health in school textbooks. We do grow some fruit and vegetables in our school grounds. Recently, we fed some of our own mangoes to class-9 students at our Azimpur branch,” the teacher added.

Then there are some schools that provide their students with quality food for a small charge. Kanta Saadat, director of operations of Singapore School Kinderland (SSK), said: “Singapore School is a franchise school. One of our schools in Singapore serves lunch, so we are doing that ever since we started our journey in Bangladesh. We are providing this service to 200 students who are in the primary section. We charge Taka 2,500 monthly for each student. Every year, we also organise a ‘Health Week’ where we teach our students about healthy food and the benefits of cleanliness. Our school chef also demonstrates how to cook nutritious dishes.”

“We try to provide wholesome snacks to encourage a balanced diet. We avoid foods that may cause allergy or indigestion, and we use fresh ingredients,” the school official added. SSK students get to enjoy different types of tasty, healthy food every day. Some of the items they serve are chicken sandwich, fried rice or noodles, vegetable spring roll, potato or egg chop, pizza, fresh bread, yellow rice with vegetable, pancake, corn soup, pudding, plain polao, chicken korma, and fruits.

At American International School of Dhaka (AISD), they try to stick to all natural produce for their school lunches. “All the ingredients are brought from several organic farms, so they are natural and not harmful to students,” said Aalvin Shaheen, executive student council president. While preparing weekly menus, they take into account basic health concerns, like not using too much oil; balance, to ensure each meal provides the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins and vegetables; and popularity of the dishes. Desserts are very low in sugar, often a fruit salad or pie or yoghurt. Even drinks are healthy and low on sugar, like juices and flavoured milk, instead of sugar-laden soft drinks. The price for a hot meal is about Tk 300, while other items range from Tk 150-300.

“We also like fast foods, but we enjoy the food at school. We are lucky enough to have good food at school. Our menus consist of both healthy and popular dishes. For the hot meal option, for example can, the menu includes quesadillas and beans, chicken with mashed potatoes, satay with rice, roast chicken with stuffing, fresh garden salad,  macaroni and cheese, korma (chicken or beef or tofu), pulao, etc. A la carte items can be tandoori chicken wrap, dosa, tomato soup, sheekh kebab, tacos; steamed momos, etc,” said Isabella Khan, a grade-12 student of AISD. “Our drinks include various types of milk, like chocolate or soy milk, mango juice, apple juice. For dessert, we can have orange or apple slices, fruit salad, apple or pumpkin pie, yoghurt, etc.”

About monitoring the quality of food served in schools, Mahbub Kabir, joint secretary of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA), a regulatory agency that works to ensure people’s right to safe foods, said: “A couple of years ago, I pointed out that we need to check the school canteens. Our law does not restrict us from such monitoring activity. However, there are only 16 of us (inspectors). We can work on school inspections when we get more staff. Schools and parents can also ask us to check their children’s school canteen if they come across any misdoing.”

Most schools in the capital have canteens that are operating as a business entity. It is hard to find out about the quality of the foods they are selling, as many students, parents and even teachers, don’t seem to consider fast foods as unhealthy.

Jahidul Islam, assistant teacher at St Francis Xavier’s Girls’ High School, explained: “We have a canteen in our school. The food that the canteen serves cannot be termed as nutritious or healthy food. They usually sell fast food items at cheaper prices. Now, the truth is in our country, the idea of schools providing healthy snacks or meals does not exist. Most of the educational institutions do not want to address the issue. The reason behind this is maybe that if they do, then they might have to arrange such (healthy) meals, which may not be profitable. It does not matter how much we teach our students about nutrition, as long as they have access to unhealthy fast foods, they cannot be eat healthy. I think schools providing meals for students is a good idea. Now, parents and teachers like us should ask the relevant authorities to work on that.”

 A child may appear healthy or bulky from the outside, but still suffer from malnutrition. Samia Tasnim, a consultant nutritionist at Labaid (Mirpur 12) and president of Bangladesh Nutritionist and Dietitian Association (BNDA), told Y&I: “Nutrition is a big factor when it comes to a child’s physical and mental growth. A few days ago, I came across a young patient who weighs 102 kg, but is suffering from malnutrition. This is happening as our children are not eating enough vegetables. For example, children prefer to eat meat over vegetables, and only meat cannot provide all the nutrition we need. My own son, who is in class 1, doesn’t want to eat vegetables; he wants fast food every time he sees his friends eating out. I do allow him to some fast food once in a while. The main problem is there are fast food shops in front of most schools in the capital. When a child sees his friends eating fast food after school, automatically he wants to socialise with them and as a result, they all end up eating fast food.”

“Another problem is many parents who have the option to give their children wholesome, homemade meals, they chose easier options. We do it because we are unaware of the importance of healthy foods and buying fast food is less time-consuming. The best thing we can do at the moment is make sure that when our children eat at home, they eat all types of foods. So, they can get all kinds of vitamins they need for healthy growth. I personally cook meat, lentils and vegetables together. That way, my children cannot complain that their food is not tasty,” Tasnim added. Meanwhile, BNDA has applied for registration and will soon start its activities to promote healthy eating.

Meanwhile, the government and different foreign and local non-government organisations (NGOs) are running various school-feeding programmes, particularly in underdeveloped areas of the country.

Shabani Rani Guhu, manager of BRAC’s School Meal Project, said over the phone: “We are working with World Food Programme (WFP). We are implementing their School Feeding Programme in 12 union parishads of Islampur upazila in Jamalpur. Under this programme, we are providing energy biscuits and cooked meals to 5,437 children. Students of 20 primary schools, 2 madrassahs and all NGO-run schools in the area are receiving this service from us. We provide them with biscuits, cooked khichuri (rice and lentils) and vegetables. We follow a certain diet plan; we make sure every student receives 90 grammes of rice, 25g lentils, 70g vegetable and 12g oil in each meal. We give cooked food for five days and once a week, we give biscuits. We have built kitchens in 18 primary schools, where we cook our meals.”

“We call the school nutrition programme ‘school meal project’. WFP sends the rice, lentils and oil directly to us and we get vegetables from the local market. We are also encouraging mothers in the areas to grow vegetables. So far, we have given 570 women Taka 4,000 each to grow their own vegetables. After fulfilling their family’s need, the women sell the rest of the vegetables in the market. This way, they are able to make small profits,” added the official from BRAC, a development organisation.

M Abdul Halim, a teacher of Boliadah Government Primary School at Islampur, said: “Under the BRAC meal project, our students receive healthy meals for free. Our students like the food they serve. They would love it even more if they bring some changes to the menu. Students from well-off families also like the food they get. We have seen school attendance increase after the school feeding programme was started in our school.”

Ram Chandra Das, project director, School Feeding Programme in Poverty Prone Areas, Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), informed Y&I: “At the moment, the government is running a school feeding project in 104 upazilas of the country. Under this project, we are able to provide cooked foods and high energy biscuits to around 2.9 million students. Students of 15,231 schools are directly benefitting from this project. Under this programme, WFP is helping us with funding in 11 upazilas, while we are bearing the cost of the rest. For every student, it costs Taka 9 to 9.50 for each meal. To make sure our students enjoy the food, we try to provide different kind of dishes every day. Rice, lentils and meat are some of the basic items we offer them. Besides, we follow a certain guideline provided by WFP for making the high energy biscuits. Now then, the number of students who receive meals from us varies every year.”

“Under the school feeding project, students in poverty prone areas are given more importance. However, children from well-off families also benefit from this programme. We are now encouraging mothers to give their children some homemade items for lunch. We have solid data that the number of students suffering from minor diseases has come down in recent years. This has been possible because they are getting nutritious food,” the DPE official said.  

“Some state schools also give free snacks to their students, but they mostly collect funds locally for that. We always encourage any organisation or person who wants to help to support us in this cause. They can contact the Directorate of Primary Education at Mirpur for further information,” Das added. “The thought of schools in our country providing snacks or lunch to students is wonderful. I believe the school authorities and parents should be more involved.”

In an e-mail reply, World Food Programme’ Dhaka office said: Our programme provides micronutrient fortified biscuits to about 300,000 schoolchildren in over 2,200 schools in Bangladesh. Over time, we have handed over its implementation to the government’s School Feeding in Poverty-Prone Areas programme. WFP works closely with the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education….. to scale-up the government programme, which has gone from reaching 55,000 schoolchildren in 2011 to 3.1 million children in 2018. WFP is also carrying out school feeding in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and providing biscuits at learning centres in Rohingya refugee camps.

Under the WFP school feeding programme, each student receives a 75g packet of micronutrient-fortified biscuits, which they eat gradually during the day. Provision of these healthy snacks six days a week has shown to increase a student’s attendance in school and improvement in nutritional status. Under a ‘home-grown school meals’ pilot project, students receive meals prepared by local women, made with vegetables sourced from local growers and micronutritent-fortified rice. Around 15,000 students in Bamna, Barguna district and Islampur, Jamalpur district are participating in the programme, which WFP plans to expand this year.

“The national School Feeding programme, begun in 2011, is an outgrowth of an emergency school feeding intervention undertaken by WFP in 2001. The next big step for school meals is the finalisation of a nutrition-sensitive National School Feeding Policy,” the statement added.

Photos: WFP, SSK, BRAC, Internet.

Healthy School Meals

Nowadays, people are giving more and more importance on healthy food for their children. Children need to eat nutritious food in order to develop well, both physically and mentally, particularly when they are in school. Many schools in Dhaka provide healthy meals for their students, while some have canteens or food shops where children can buy what they like. This week, YI takes a look at school meals and how wholesome they are for growing children. Tasnuba Binte Farazi, 15, is a student of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College. During her lunch break at school, she normally eats a home-cooked meal or snacks. Most of the time, my parents give me homemade food. All our school branches have an outlet of Fakruddin Biryani and Restaurant. There, we can buy different types of snacks, like potato chops, samosa, shingara, etc. At our main branch (on Baily Road), they serve biryani as well. The price of these items starts from Taka 15, she said. When this correspondent asked her whether such food items could be considered as healthy food, she appeared a little bit confused. M Saiful, a teacher of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, explained: Our school gates remain closed during recess. If any student does not bring food from home, then they can eat at the Fakruddin outlet we have on our school premises. The food they serve might not be as wholesome as homemade food, but we have to look at the practical situation. In our country, especially in the city, people seem to care very little about the nutritional value of foods. Eating fast food has become a trend. Of course, we try to inform our students about eating healthy. But I believe we need to include information on how eating fast food regularly can harm our health in school textbooks. We do grow some fruit and vegetables in our school grounds. Recently, we fed some of our own mangoes to class-9 students at our Azimpur branch, the teacher added. Then there are some schools that provide their students with quality food for a small charge. Kanta Saadat, director of operations of Singapore School Kinderland (SSK), said: Singapore School is a franchise school. One of our schools in Singapore serves lunch, so we are doing that ever since we started our journey in Bangladesh. We are providing this service to 200 students who are in the primary section. We charge Taka 2,500 monthly for each student. Every year, we also organise a Health Week where we teach our students about healthy food and the benefits of cleanliness. Our school chef also demonstrates how to cook nutritious dishes. We try to provide wholesome snacks to encourage a balanced diet. We avoid foods that may cause allergy or indigestion, and we use fresh ingredients, the school official added. SSK students get to enjoy different types of tasty, healthy food every day. Some of the items they serve are chicken sandwich, fried rice or noodles, vegetable spring roll, potato or egg chop, pizza, fresh bread, yellow rice with vegetable, pancake, corn soup, pudding, plain polao, chicken korma, and fruits. At American International School of Dhaka (AISD), they try to stick to all natural produce for their school lunches. All the ingredients are brought from several organic farms, so they are natural and not harmful to students, said Aalvin Shaheen, executive student council president. While preparing weekly menus, they take into account basic health concerns, like not using too much oil; balance, to ensure each meal provides the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins and vegetables; and popularity of the dishes. Desserts are very low in sugar, often a fruit salad or pie or yoghurt. Even drinks are healthy and low on sugar, like juices and flavoured milk, instead of sugar-laden soft drinks. The price for a hot meal is about Tk 300, while other items range from Tk 150-300. We also like fast foods, but we enjoy the food at school. We are lucky enough to have good food at school. Our menus consist of both healthy and popular dishes. For the hot meal option, for example can, the menu includes quesadillas and beans, chicken with mashed potatoes, satay with rice, roast chicken with stuffing, fresh garden salad, macaroni and cheese, korma (chicken or beef or tofu), pulao, etc. A la carte items can be tandoori chicken wrap, dosa, tomato soup, sheekh kebab, tacos; steamed momos, etc, said Isabella Khan, a grade-12 student of AISD. Our drinks include various types of milk, like chocolate or soy milk, mango juice, apple juice. For dessert, we can have orange or apple slices, fruit salad, apple or pumpkin pie, yoghurt, etc. About monitoring the quality of food served in schools, Mahbub Kabir, joint secretary of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA), a regulatory agency that works to ensure peoples right to safe foods, said: A couple of years ago, I pointed out that we need to check the school canteens. Our law does not restrict us from such monitoring activity. However, there are only 16 of us (inspectors). We can work on school inspections when we get more staff. Schools and parents can also ask us to check their childrens school canteen if they come across any misdoing. Most schools in the capital have canteens that are operating as a business entity. It is hard to find out about the quality of the foods they are selling, as many students, parents and even teachers, dont seem to consider fast foods as unhealthy. Jahidul Islam, assistant teacher at St Francis Xaviers Girls High School, explained: We have a canteen in our school. The food that the canteen serves cannot be termed as nutritious or healthy food. They usually sell fast food items at cheaper prices. Now, the truth is in our country, the idea of schools providing healthy snacks or meals does not exist. Most of the educational institutions do not want to address the issue. The reason behind this is maybe that if they do, then they might have to arrange such (healthy) meals, which may not be profitable. It does not matter how much we teach our students about nutrition, as long as they have access to unhealthy fast foods, they cannot be eat healthy. I think schools providing meals for students is a good idea. Now, parents and teachers like us should ask the relevant authorities to work on that. A child may appear healthy or bulky from the outside, but still suffer from malnutrition. Samia Tasnim, a consultant nutritionist at Labaid (Mirpur 12) and president of Bangladesh Nutritionist and Dietitian Association (BNDA), told YI: Nutrition is a big factor when it comes to a childs physical and mental growth. A few days ago, I came across a young patient who weighs 102 kg, but is suffering from malnutrition. This is happening as our children are not eating enough vegetables. For example, children prefer to eat meat over vegetables, and only meat cannot provide all the nutrition we need. My own son, who is in class 1, doesnt want to eat vegetables; he wants fast food every time he sees his friends eating out. I do allow him to some fast food once in a while. The main problem is there are fast food shops in front of most schools in the capital. When a child sees his friends eating fast food after school, automatically he wants to socialise with them and as a result, they all end up eating fast food. Another problem is many parents who have the option to give their children wholesome, homemade meals, they chose easier options. We do it because we are unaware of the importance of healthy foods and buying fast food is less time-consuming. The best thing we can do at the moment is make sure that when our children eat at home, they eat all types of foods. So, they can get all kinds of vitamins they need for healthy growth. I personally cook meat, lentils and vegetables together. That way, my children cannot complain that their food is not tasty, Tasnim added. Meanwhile, BNDA has applied for registration and will soon start its activities to promote healthy eating. Meanwhile, the government and different foreign and local non-government organisations (NGOs) are running various school-feeding programmes, particularly in underdeveloped areas of the country. Shabani Rani Guhu, manager of BRACs School Meal Project, said over the phone: We are working with World Food Programme (WFP). We are implementing their School Feeding Programme in 12 union parishads of Islampur upazila in Jamalpur. Under this programme, we are providing energy biscuits and cooked meals to 5,437 children. Students of 20 primary schools, 2 madrassahs and all NGO-run schools in the area are receiving this service from us. We provide them with biscuits, cooked khichuri (rice and lentils) and vegetables. We follow a certain diet plan; we make sure every student receives 90 grammes of rice, 25g lentils, 70g vegetable and 12g oil in each meal. We give cooked food for five days and once a week, we give biscuits. We have built kitchens in 18 primary schools, where we cook our meals. We call the school nutrition programme school meal project. WFP sends the rice, lentils and oil directly to us and we get vegetables from the local market. We are also encouraging mothers in the areas to grow vegetables. So far, we have given 570 women Taka 4,000 each to grow their own vegetables. After fulfilling their familys need, the women sell the rest of the vegetables in the market. This way, they are able to make small profits, added the official from BRAC, a development organisation. M Abdul Halim, a teacher of Boliadah Government Primary School at Islampur, said: Under the BRAC meal project, our students receive healthy meals for free. Our students like the food they serve. They would love it even more if they bring some changes to the menu. Students from well-off families also like the food they get. We have seen school attendance increase after the school feeding programme was started in our school. Ram Chandra Das, project director, School Feeding Programme in Poverty Prone Areas, Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), informed YI: At the moment, the government is running a school feeding project in 104 upazilas of the country. Under this project, we are able to provide cooked foods and high energy biscuits to around 2.9 million students. Students of 15,231 schools are directly benefitting from this project. Under this programme, WFP is helping us with funding in 11 upazilas, while we are bearing the cost of the rest. For every student, it costs Taka 9 to 9.50 for each meal. To make sure our students enjoy the food, we try to provide different kind of dishes every day. Rice, lentils and meat are some of the basic items we offer them. Besides, we follow a certain guideline provided by WFP for making the high energy biscuits. Now then, the number of students who receive meals from us varies every year. Under the school feeding project, students in poverty prone areas are given more importance. However, children from well-off families also benefit from this programme. We are now encouraging mothers to give their children some homemade items for lunch. We have solid data that the number of students suffering from minor diseases has come down in recent years. This has been possible because they are getting nutritious food, the DPE official said. Some state schools also give free snacks to their students, but they mostly collect funds locally for that. We always encourage any organisation or person who wants to help to support us in this cause. They can contact the Directorate of Primary Education at Mirpur for further information, Das added. The thought of schools in our country providing snacks or lunch to students is wonderful. I believe the school authorities and parents should be more involved. In an e-mail reply, World Food Programme Dhaka office said: Our programme provides micronutrient fortified biscuits to about 300,000 schoolchildren in over 2,200 schools in Bangladesh. Over time, we have handed over its implementation to the governments School Feeding in Poverty-Prone Areas programme. WFP works closely with the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.. to scale-up the government programme, which has gone from reaching 55,000 schoolchildren in 2011 to 3.1 million children in 2018. WFP is also carrying out school feeding in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and providing biscuits at learning centres in Rohingya refugee camps. Under the WFP school feeding programme, each student receives a 75g packet of micronutrient-fortified biscuits, which they eat gradually during the day. Provision of these healthy snacks six days a week has shown to increase a students attendance in school and improvement in nutritional status. Under a home-grown school meals pilot project, students receive meals prepared by local women, made with vegetables sourced from local growers and micronutritent-fortified rice. Around 15,000 students in Bamna, Barguna district and Islampur, Jamalpur district are participating in the programme, which WFP plans to expand this year. The national School Feeding programme, begun in 2011, is an outgrowth of an emergency school feeding intervention undertaken by WFP in 2001. The next big step for school meals is the finalisation of a nutrition-sensitive National School Feeding Policy, the statement added. Photos: WFP, SSK, BRAC, Internet.