Monday 27 May 2013, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Narere –Last Friday, as part of the Healthy Lifestyle Programme at the SPC Community Education Training Centre in Narere, staff, students and SPC colleagues took part in an enterprising activity to promote healthy eating, using the concept ‘cash calories’. This was the initiative of Jessie Pullar, an Australian Volunteer for International Development working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and AusAID-funded Health Sector Support Programme for Fiji. 

It involved a spread of lunch and morning tea eats that included salads, fried foods, local dishes, home-made drinks, bought fizzy drinks and a range of sweets.  In this cash calories programme, each food item is given a dollar amount based on its caloric value. 

This Wednesday, 14 March, SPC’s Community Education Training Centre (CETC) officially starts its 50th Community Development Programme.  This year, 2013, is a special year, as it marks the golden jubilee of CETC’s contribution to the region. Since 1963, 1,700 women and more than 500 entrepreneurs and business support service providers have graduated from CETC.   But 2013 is also the end of an era for CETC – the programme is expected to be phased out at CETC at the end of the year and be taken up by the University of the South Pacific as part of the reform recommended by SPC’s external review in 2012.