Secondary Schools’ Food and Nutrition Quiz Launched

The 2010 National Secondary Schools’ Food and Nutrition Quiz, which aims to enhance and promote food, nutrition and healthy lifestyle in schools and communities, was officially launched at the Ministry of Education’s Caenwood Centre in Kingston yesterday (March 2).
The competition is the Jamaican leg of a Caribbean-wide contest, organised by the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI).
According to Competition Co-ordinator, David Hutton, the elimination rounds will be held in the Ministry of Education’s six regions, with the finals at the Caenwood Centre, where a national team will be selected for participation in the Caribbean Schools’ Food and Nutrition Quiz.
He noted that the competition is normally held in October, but a decision was made to hold it earlier this year to give the Jamaican team six or seven months to prepare for the regional contest.
“We run our final competition in October and the Caribbean competition is held two weeks after we stage that final competition, while in other territories, they tend to run their competition in March, April. This year, with the kind assistance of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation), we are staging the competition earlier, because when we run the competition later in the year, our students just have two or three weeks to prepare for the Caribbean competition,” he said.
Nutritionist from the CFNI, Audrey Morris, in the meantime, said that the regional quiz is one of the Institute’s important nutrition communication strategies.
“It’s not only a way of increasing nutrition knowledge of team members, but it highlights the whole field of nutrition,” she said, adding that there is a spin-off effect of fostering interaction between the participating students of different countries.
Initiated in 1992, the competition involves collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Health, and the National Food and Nutrition Co-ordinating Committee of Jamaica (NFNCCJ).
The objective is to upgrade the nutrition knowledge and skills of students, as well as assist them with their preparation for local and regional examinations in food and nutrition. It also aims to improve the image of food and nutrition as a science.
The Food and Agriculture Organization is the major sponsor of this year’s competition, while Harthill and Tastee Patties are the other sponsors.