CHILDREN cannot be told to eat healthy when nutritious food is too expensive, unavailable or unappealing, Consumer Council of Fiji chief executive officer Seema Shandil has warned.
Ms Shandil said the country must stop placing the burden of healthy eating solely on children and instead create food environments that make healthy choices affordable and accessible.
“We cannot simply tell a child to eat healthy if nutritious options are unavailable, unaffordable, and unappealing,” she said.
Speaking at the ‘Putting children first: Building healthier food environments through home-grown school meals’ policy dialogue at the Suva Civic Centre this week, Ms Shandil said children were consumers whose eating habits were being shaped by what was available, affordable and promoted around them.
“A healthy choice, therefore, must be accessible choice and affordable choice, and most importantly for children an appealing and practical choice.”
She said schools had a major responsibility because childhood was when lifelong food preferences and habits were formed.
Ms Shandil said linking schools with local farmers could improve children’s nutrition while creating a dependable market for locally produced food.
Health Minister Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu backed the call, saying schools must become environments where nutritious food was “accessible, affordable, and readily available”.
He said providing children with regular access to nutritious, locally grown food was an investment in the future health and resilience of Fiji.
“Our schools have an important role in shaping lifelong eating habits, and our responsibility cannot be limited to telling children to eat healthy food,” Dr Lalabalavu said.
“We must create an environment in which nutritious spaces are accessible, affordable, and readily available, as alluded to by Ms Shandil.”
Ms Shandil said the newly launched policy brief must now lead to practical action.
