BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance regulating the supply, sale, and distribution of snack food and other food products in public schools in the city.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Elaine D. Sembrano stated it shall be applied to the premises of all public day care centers, elementary and secondary schools within the jurisdiction of the city, including canteens, cafeteria, refectories, dining halls and other similar areas where food is stored, prepared or served to schoolchildren, students or school employees.
Pursuant to the provisions of the ordinance, a monitoring board shall be created in each school or group of public schools, whatever is most practicable, to be composed of the City Health Services Office as Chairperson with members coming from the School Principal, representative from the City Social Welfare and Development Officer, representative from the Parents-Teachers-Community Association (PTCA), representative from the food service sector, and representative from the barangay council where the school is located who shall be appointed by the City Mayor.
Under the ordinance, the monitoring board shall formulate and implement guidelines on the bringing in, sale and preparation of snack food and other food products intended for schoolchildren, students and school personnel; designate volunteers and personnel to regularly check on the food items served or prepared; conduct information drive, particularly during card-giving day or PTCA meetings on proper diet, practical and healthy lifestyle and the downside of junk foods, carbonated beverages and food medically considered as health hazards, and prepare and submit an annual report to the City Health Services Office as benchmark data in monitoring the health of schoolchildren, students and personnel relative to the intake of certain foods.
The ordinance added the City Health Services Office, in coordination with the Department of Health, shall come up with a certified list of food considered as junk and health hazard for the guidance of the public, particularly the public school administrators, personnel, students, pupils and the members of the monitoring boards and that all foods in the said list shall be banned in all public school premises.
The ordinance stated no pupil, student, parent, guardian, school personnel or individual shall bring in to the school premises food and beverages identified on the list of banned food and food products as certified by the health department or the City Social Welfare and Development Office.
The designated volunteer or personnel pursuant to the ordinance shall be authorized to confiscate any banned food item brought inside the premises of the school and deposit it in the basket provided for the purpose and labeled as “poison or junk” and the concerned individuals may claim it only when he or she leave the school.
Further, habitual offenders shall be required to attend special re-orientation sessions or lectures to be scheduled by the monitoring board and shall undergo in-school or barangay civic activities relative to health and sanitation.
The City Health Services Officer shall institute the necessary adjustments to the annual budget for the health department to provide for an advocacy fund for the activities provided for the purpose. By Dexter A. See