An extensive training is underway in Punakha for school cooks and teachers from across the country to improve nutrition and hygiene in school’s menu. The training is expected to diversify school menu with more focus on nutrition.
The training focuses on food safety, food handling and food nutrition among others.
Participants said the training is informative.
“We learned about the nutrition requirement for the schools and detailed kitchen handling,” said Gado, a teacher adding that the training is an integrated approach to improve food habits in the schools.
Another participant, a cook, said he learned that giving more fruits to the children will benefit their overall growth. “We also knew the amount of meat we should provide to the students,” Sonam added.
The World Health Organization has recommended schools to reduce daily salt consumption to a maximum of 5 grams a day. So the participants are also being trained to grow herbs in school premises, which can be used to supplement salt to some extent. They were also trained on pot gardening, maintain school garden and overall management of the school mess.
Jamyang Choden from Ministry of Education said the programme is an integration of school feeding, school agriculture and school health programmes. “In school health we mostly concentrate on the wash, water and sanitation and all these three programmes geared towards one common goal that is health and wellbeing of the child.”
Similar trainings will be provided to schools across the country in phase wise. Schools will be monitored on regular basis, following the training. The ongoing training will end on July 28.
