What makes a healthy school lunch?
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.
Use your imagination to make lunches appealing and interesting, and encourage your children to be involved in the selection and preparation of their lunch. When children are involved in food preparation they are more likely to experiment with different types of foods. Don't forget to offer praise when a good food choice is made.
You should avoid giving your children high fat, high sugar and energy dense items such as chips, lollies, high sugar muesli bars or soft drinks.
It helps your child if food is packed into separate containers for each recess and lunch break. For example, a small box of cut fruit pieces for the morning fruit break, another small box of wheat crackers and low fat cheese slices for play lunch, and a larger box with sandwiches, fruit, etc for lunch time. Water is the best drink for children all day at school.
Go For Your Life (Vic) suggests including the following foods in your child's daily lunchbox:
- Fresh fruit
- Crunchy vegetables
- A dairy food - cheese, milk or yoghurt
- A protein food - slice of lean meat, hard boiled egg or peanut butter
- Starchy food - bread, roll, flat bread, fruit bread or crackers
- Water
Weigh Up Your Lunch Box with this interactive game!
There are plenty of other websites with great lunchbox ideas to help parents prepare interesting and tasty lunches for their children. Take a look at the following:
Fruit breaks in the classroom
Many schools also allow children to snack on fruit and vegetables during specified class times to keep up energy levels and increase healthy food intake. Some schools call this ‘bite and write', ‘Crunch and Sip', or ‘brain food break'.
Schools can also strongly influence the food that children take to school by educating parents and encouraging a healthy, balanced lunchbox.
For more information on healthy lunchboxes and school nutrition, check out our Back to School with Healthy Food campaign kit.
The kit includes information, tips and resources to help you become an advocate for healthy change in your child's school!
Lunchbox winners and losers
We asked members of The Parents Jury to nominate their favourite and worst lunchbox food choices. Here are members' top ten lunchbox winners and lunchbox losers. Try the winners for yourself and see what your kids think!
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