WHITEMAN
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson has instructed that a team be put in place to ensure that children in early childhood institutions are provided with at least one nutritional meal each day.
Mr. Patterson's directive follows yesterday's meeting of the Council of Ministers in Cabinet.
"They will spearhead a programme to take effect as soon as possible so that the funding provided by the NHT (National Housing Trust) for the education transformation agenda will be most effectively spent in terms of providing nutritious meals for the children in the early childhood institutions," Information Minister Burchell Whiteman told journalists at yesterday's post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
The Information Minister said there was concern about the nutritional status of children just born to age five.
Among those children, four per cent are overweight and four per cent are underweight, according to a report delivered to Cabinet by a Planning Institute of Jamaica-headed team.
FOUR-PRONGED STRATEGY
The PIOJ-headed team recommended a four-pronged strategy, including the enhancement of the school feeding programme and the intensification of nutrition services.
The strategy also calls for influencing food availability and the institution of a surveillance system to properly respond to nutrition concerns as they are discovered.
Mr. Whiteman said he could not yet give a detailed outline of the action plan as it would be undertaken by the team the Prime Minister instructed to be organised.
He said the team would include a representative or representatives from the PIOJ, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, the Ministry of Health, the Poverty Alleviation Unit and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
