Junk food ban

While the Provincial Board may have good intentions to propose a ban on soft drinks and junk food in school campuses, it’s doubtful whether school officials can realistically enforce it.

To be honest, there are scores of vendors that not only sell soft drinks and junk food near schools but all sorts of homegrown snacks that foreign visitors have either grown to love or found a reason to hate (balut and adidas anyone?).

These vendors rely on selling these junk food and soft drinks for their livelihood and cannot afford to become a concessionaire in school canteens. A ban may cut into their income but knowing their resilience, they may quickly adapt and start selling healthier fare.

So what is healthy food as pushed for by the PB, specifically through a proposed ordinance by PB Member Christopher Baricuatro? The proposed ordinance gains some traction and context in the light of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or Train Law which imposes heavier taxes on sugary food and drinks.

It also augments or reinforces a previous order from the Department of Education (DepEd) requiring schools to sell healthy food to its students and prohibit them from buying food elsewhere especially those located within 50 meters of their campuses.

It would be advisable if schools can afford to hire at least nurses or nutritionists to serve as guides in determining who gets to make and sell food to their students in their canteens or cafeterias.

That way they can make sure that the food served is nutritious, safe and affordable to students who can just as easily be persuaded to buy a burger or any of those fried ready-to-eat meals if they can.

And we’re not even talking about ensuring the sanitation of the canteens and the food preparation of these concessionaires and food vendors who can cut corners and sell food unsafe for consumption to their unsuspecting costumers who in this case are schoolchildren.

Truth be told, only schools in Metro Cebu can probably afford to enforce a ban on junk food and soft drinks since majority of the schools in the province can hardly afford to buy their own chairs and tables.

In fact, we can hazard a guess that a lot of these schools need feeding programs sponsored by their local governments in order to entice their students to keep attending school since the children have to walk across rivers for them to reach the schools.

That said, the ban is timely and should be implemented with the end goal of making sure that the students are well fed with good, affordable food.

Towards that end, school officials should meet with their food concessionaires and the vendors to remind and continually require them to sell such fare to their students to protect their health so they can study and learn better in their classes.