School Food Settings

Canteens and Tuckshops

Children in primary and secondary school generally have access to the school canteen on a daily basis. It’s important that the canteen delivers the right nutritional message by providing a wide range of healthy food and drink options, consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Australian Children and Adolescents.

Unfortunately, far too many school canteens offer energy dense foods – high in fat, sugar and salt – as these are cheap and easy for canteen staff to prepare. However, healthy school canteens do exist. Many canteens have made a success of offering tasty and innovative menus to children, by including items such as hot and cold sandwiches and wraps, salad plates, baked potatoes, sushi and pasta bowls.

Currently, guidelines around providing healthy food in school canteens differ from state to state. In a move toward a nationally consistent approach, the Australian Government has funded the National Healthy School Canteens project.

For further information on school food guidelines in your state or territory see our section on School Nutrition Guidelines around Australia .

Vending Machines

In schools, vending machines provide children with an easy-to-access supply of junk food and soft drinks. The accessibility of unhealthy food and drinks encourages more frequent consumption, often at the expense of healthier options.

Vending machines undermine healthy school curriculum and policy, and other school environments that encourage healthy eating. They are often kept as a source of revenue for schools – with no concern for children’s health.

Classroom Rewards

Food is frequently used as a reward for "good" behaviour both at home and at school. Unfortunately the types of foods used for this purpose are often lollies or chocolate, with no real nutritional value.

Giving children lollies in the classroom undermines nutrition education, encourages over consumption of high fat, high sugar foods, and teaches children to eat when they are not hungry. To ensure that healthy food messages are consistent throughout the school environment it is important that teachers learn to use alternative rewards in the classroom.

There are many alternative rewards that teachers can choose from, either for no cost or for very little. 

Incursions and Excursions

It is important that the foods and drinks available to children during incursions and excursions are also healthy and consistently convey good nutritional messages. This may require a little extra planning if children are being taken out of the school grounds or if external providers are bringing snacks to the school with them.

Teachers may need to discuss the school's requirements with activity providers to ensure that the healthy eating requirements are fully understood. Preparing a simple document outlining the school's nutrition policy is a useful way to convey the right information to external providers.

School Sponsorship

Sponsorship contracts between schools and external suppliers should be consistent with the school's overall healthy eating policy. This includes sponsorship for all types of school events such as sporting events, curriculum activities and extra-curricular activities and programs.

It is common for fast-food outlets to sponsor school sporting events, providing food and drink vouchers and branded clothing and sports equipment to students. However, such an arrangement is contradictory of a healthy eating message within the school. A more suitable sponsorship arrangement could be with a local sporting goods shop with items such as water bottles or sweat bands given to the children.

Lunchboxes

Healthy lunches and snacks provide children with the energy and nutrients they need to play, concentrate and learn all day, so it's important that their lunchboxes include a variety of fresh and tasty foods. For more ideas and information on healthy lunchboxes and snacks, see our Healthy Eating for Kids section.