healthy-eating-at-school

Healthy eating at school

Start by choosing a variety of foods to ensure that your child is receiving adequate nutrition throughout the day. See the Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents and information on serve sizes.
Don’t forget to include mainly breads and cereals (bread, rice, pasta etc), fruit and vegetables and moderate amounts of dairy and meat or meat alternatives.
Bread is the most common lunch food for kids. There is a range of breads such as sliced bread (white, white high fibre, wholemeal, multigrain, rye); pita bread; kebab bread; bread rolls; and English muffins. Use a variety of fillings to keep children interested.
Dairy products are particularly important. Watch that your children are not replacing milk with juice all the time. Encourage children to drink water throughout the day.
Save sweet and fatty treats for special occasions. In most children’s lives there are more than enough birthdays, holidays and other special occasions.
Choose healthy snack food options including cheese sticks, canned or fresh fruit, rice cakes, pikelets etc.

Here is an example morning tea:

Food	Food Group
Scone Banana Cheese slice	bread or cereal fruit dairy

And an example lunch:

Food	Food Group
Sandwiches Salad filling for the sandwich Tuna or other lean meat Apple Milk drink (frozen)	bread or cereal vegetable meat fruit dairy

Plan Ahead!

Planning ahead for the busy times helps you get through them a little easier. Think through the lunches you will be preparing for the next week and make sure you buy the ingredients when you do your regular shopping.

Keep food cool

If food is not stored properly bacteria in and on food can grow and make us sick. That’s why it is important to keep school lunches cool. Lunches are usually kept in children’s school bags all day, and are likely to get warm. Certain foods need to be kept cool and here are some ideas:

To keep food fresh, wrap sandwiches in plastic wrap or put in snap-lock plastic bags.
Get a lunch box that includes a small water bottle. Fill bottle with water and freeze it. Place in lunch box to keep food cold.
Freeze small tetra packs of milk or juice.
If you make lunches the night before, keep them in the fridge overnight.
Remember keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold!
Store food safely

More lunch ideas:

Fruit in season
Vegetables with yoghurt
Pita bread filled with salad vegetables or tabouli and rissoles
Water
Pikelets
Frozen UHT Milk
Vegetarian pizza or sandwich
Vegetable sticks
Fruit salad
Yoghurt
Egg, tomato and cheese sandwich
Slice of fruit loaf
Dried fruit and nuts
Bread roll filled with vegetables, cheese and slice of lean roast beef
Grapes
Sultanas