In cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information (MoESYI), the HEART/NSTA Trust is aiming to improve the quality of meals served to students in schools islandwide via a specialised meal preparation training course involving over 300 school cooks across Jamaica.

Senator Dana Moris Dixon, MoESYI Minister, says that whilst the main goal of this initiative is to ensure that school cooks meet the necessary standards required for the Range Cook Job qualification, the aim is to do more than just the bare minimum, but impart a lasting positive impact on school cuisine.

“This programme is expected to significantly enhance the effectiveness of the National School Feeding Programme,” she claimed. “[It does so] by ensuring that meals provided are more nutritious, safely prepared, and culturally relevant in alignment with the Ministry’s National School Nutrition Policy and Standards, which was laid and tabled in Parliament in May this year.”

The training of school cooks began on the 21st of July and is set to complete on the 31st of August. The programme is designed to properly integrate both theoretical and practical knowledge to the cooks partaking in it, making them capable food preparers with comprehensive, hands-on experience.

HEART/NSTA is to facilitate and host those trainings under the initiative, which will be located at HEART institutions, HEART partner institutions, and the MoESYI School food and nutrition laboratories. The participants will partake in a curriculum centred chiefly on culinary foundations and hygiene, culinary applications and food production, as well as kitchen operations, menu planning, and stock control.

After completing the course, participants are set to receive a Job Qualification from the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET), which will make them official Range Cooks.

“Early feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive,” Kasan Troupe, Permanent Secretary of the MoESYI noted. “Many cooks have expressed gratitude for the chance to upgrade their culinary skills. They have shared that the valuable new techniques and knowledge not only improve their proficiency but will also improve meal quality for students.”