Arthur Smith Primary focusing on food security Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Arthur Smith Primary School is focused on educating their students of the importance of food security and agriculture.

This year, the school celebrated World Food Day on Monday October 17, with the theme “Local Foods, Endless Possibilities” with a variety of activities from the 9 am class start until 3 pm.

Speaking to Loop News, Acting Principal John Quinton narrated the day’s activities which parents were invited to take part in.

“Today, the students along with the parents have worked together. We had one particular item across year groups and, therefore, the students got a chance with their parents to work with that item. Let’s say it was a cucumber or butternut squash, they would create something healthy from that particular food and bring it into the school today for display and also we set up to get some assistance from farms and farming organisations to donate to the school so that parents too can purchase some of the local foods here at a reasonable price to also assist our school.”

The principal explained that aside from the commemoration of World Food Day, it was a part of the school’s personal mission to promote food security and engrain an appreciation for local produce among the student population.

“One of the goals of Arthur Smith Primary is to sensitize the students to the importance of food security and helping them to understand and appreciate the local foods and the possibilities that can occur. For example, our theme this year for World Food Day is ‘Local Foods, Endless Possibilities’ and the theme for Education Month from the ministry is “Promoting Quality Education Through Healthy Minds and Bodies” so we sought to blend the two in one this year by looking specifically at local foods.”

“We would have focused on vegetables, fruits, ground provisions etcetera so that the children can see and understand that these foods actually come from the field because many of the students associate food with the supermarket because that’s where they pick it up but to actually help them appreciate the role of the farmer and what actually goes in to making food available to all of us.”

Quinton further explained that the school also pays special attention to agricultural science by blending agriculture with their science program.

“At the school, we are also promoting agricultural science. We also have an agricultural science blended with the science program to create a little garden at the school so the children actually see food being produced.”

“We are also giving the children an appreciation of what is possible with food and that food doesn’t have to be bland. On Friday Creig Greenidge, a famous chef here in Barbados, he came in and he did demonstration with some local foods and so the children actually got to see real chefs in action creating food,” he added.

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