Healthy Kids School Canteen Association

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Why Food Matters at School

Reasons why the Healthy Kids SCA advocates a healthy school canteen:

• The Fresh Tastes @ School NSW Healthy Canteen Strategy is mandatory in all NSW Government schools and strongly supported and endorsed by the Catholic and Independent Education sectors.
• The school canteen is an integral part of the school and it should support and complement classroom programs. It should not mimic the ‘corner store’ or local ‘take-away’.
• Nutrition is important to health throughout life. It is particularly important at times of rapid growth and development, which include the school years.
• The school canteen can provide a substantial proportion of a child’s daily nutritional intake, especially if both lunch and snacks are purchased regularly.
• In spite of our abundance of food and comparative affluence there is a lot of evidence associating health problems and disease with the diet pattern of Australians.  Poor dental health, overweight, obesity, underweight, poor physical fitness, constipation, high levels of fatty substances in the blood and elevated blood pressure are associated with diet and these conditions have been identified in studies in Australia.
• As well as an educational role the canteen has an important service, social and cultural role in our multi-racial society.
• Parents have the final responsibility for the nutrition of their children. Whilst students are at school, the school has an educational responsibility that applies to the school canteen.
• The school years are critical in establishing healthy lifestyle patterns.
• The Australian Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents recommended by the Commonwealth Department of Health and endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council provide a valuable reference when a canteen policy is being developed.
• The development of a canteen policy and procedures for each school, including nutritional and health objectives as well as operational objectives provides a unique opportunity for an educational health promotion program involving students, parents, teachers and canteen staff.