Probes continue into serving of spoiled box lunches

An investigation is undergoing as to how a worm came to find its way into a box lunch of buss-up-shut, chicken and curry potatoes served at the Pentecostal Light and Life Foundation High school in Scarborough by the Tobago school feeding programme last Wednesday.

Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Chief Secretary with responsibility for Education, Marisha Osmond, told Newsday on Monday that officers of Education Division were monitoring the situation and that alternative suppliers for box lunches have been assigned to the affected school “pending conclusion of the investigation.” Newsday Tobago understands that the school was dismissed just after midday last Thursday, and that Education Division officials and the caterers of the box lunches met with the school’s principal.

Last Thursday’s incident followed a previous incident on November 7 when the Division received reports of a problem with the box lunches supplied to students of the Belle Garden Anglican primary and the Roxborough Secondary schools in east Tobago. Reports were that at least five students fell ill after eating that meal of curried chicken and channa with rice.

Asked about the status of the investigation into the November 7 incident, Osmond said on Monday morning she was told that it was not yet incomplete but that alternative suppliers of box lunches were assigned to those two affected schools as well.

“We take this incident very seriously because the safety of our food and wellbeing of our students are always high priority,” she said.

Last Wednesday, at the post Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex, Clader Hall, Chief Secretary and Education Secretary Kelvin Charles told reporters that he was awaiting results from tests done on food samples.

“Public health took some samples and it was sent to Trinidad for testing. Those samples have not yet been returned but in the meantime, action has been taken and the provider of the lunches has been changed. Until we receive the results of that test, that action will continue,” he said.

Last month, Charles had announced a revision of the meal options and a new menu for the box options, which he said then, was to go in effect in November.

Osmond, giving an update on this initiative on Monday said, “It is onstream and has been working pretty fine” despite challenges in sourcing the needed quantities of provisions.

“Their plan is to now substitute, if they cannot get one type of provision, they would try another; so if they are doing cassava and they have challenges getting the cassava, they would resort to using potatoes, but other than that, the new menu has been rolled out and things are on stream,” she said.