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School Food Settings
Schools play an important role in promoting healthy eating to children. A healthy diet has been shown to improve children's learning and behaviour and is beneficial to the school community as a whole.
There are many different food environments in a school. Each one is significant in its contribution to creating a healthy school. In a healthy school the nutrition messages are consistent across all food settings and promote the benefits of a balanced and varied diet. Healthy eating should be modelled at every opportunity and consistently carried through into the classrooms with teachers also demonstrating appropriate eating behaviours.
Unfortunately many schools rely heavily on profits from the sale of unhealthy junk foods and soft drinks in canteens, vending machines, and through fundraising activities. Parents need to demand that their children's health is given priority over profits and Australian schools become leaders in the fight against the growing levels of childhood obesity.
Click on the links below to find out more about the different types of food settings in schools, and look for the Parents Champion Ideas icon on each page for suggestions about how to campaign for change in each area.
Vending machines in schools are invariably dominated by junk food and sugar laden soft drinks. More...
It is important that the foods and drinks available to children during incursions and excursions are also healthy and consistently convey good nutritional messages. More...
It is important that the healthy eating message is consistently carried across all school food environments including the sponsorship of school activities. More...
Fundraising activities are an opportunity to promote a healthy lifestyle to the whole school community. Read on for a profitable alternative suggestions and healthy fundraising resources to get you started. More...
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. More...
The majority of children bring at least some of their food each day from home. More...
Children from the ages of five through to eighteen generally have access to a school canteen on a daily basis and can be heavily influenced by the types of food that are available. More...
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