The My Healthy Caribbean School (MHCS) initiative is currently closed.

My Healthy Caribbean School (MHCS) was an initiative of the HCC which aimed to provide students, teachers and parents with the opportunity to monitor and share information on the school environment with a focus on nutrition and physical activity.

MHCS empowered communities by providing them with the tools to:
1. Learn more about what a healthy school is;
2. Monitor or rate their local schools performance; and
3. Take steps to work together with students, parents, school administrators, and Ministries of Education and Ministries of Health to make their schools healthier.

MHCS was a phased project emerging out of a Letter of Agreement between the HCC and the PAHO. The aim of the LoA was to support civil society capacity building in the area of childhood obesity prevention. MHCS was available in 5 countries namely, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, all of which excluding Trinidad and Tobago were beneficiaries of, and participated in, the HCC project funded by CDB.

Trinidad and Tobago was included based on policy initiatives commenced in 2017 to make schools healthier through, among others, the introduction of a national ban on the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in schools. MHCS allowed communities across Trinidad and Tobago to monitor the extent to which the policy was being implemented.

This was the first time such an initiative has been implemented in the Caribbean and it provided a unique opportunity for Caribbean people, including students and parents, to influence their local school environment through information sharing.
Together we wanted to ensure that schools across the Caribbean are healthy schools in which children, adolescents and young people;

Have access to healthy foods and beverages low in sugars and fats
Unhealthy foods and beverages should not be available or permitted in and around schools ensuring that the healthy choice is the only choice.
Are safe from the predatory advertising and promotion of junk foods
The ultra processed food and beverage industry targets young children to build brand loyalty and ultimately increase profits. This is unethical and violates the Convention of the Rights of the Child to which all CARICOM countries are signatories.
Are engaged in daily mandatory physical activity
The WHO recommends 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity daily for children and adolescents 5-17 years of age.