WHAT’S FOR LUNCH?
Your guide to healthy school lunches

Children need to eat a variety of foods every day to be healthy.  Parents can give children a healthy school lunch that tastes great and is good for them too.  Many parents say one of the major problems with school lunches is when the children bring them home!  Try to give your child some choice about what they take for lunch, and if possible, get them involved in preparing the ‘healthier’ foods.  Choosing food for a healthy lunch is easy.

Nutrition Tips
Children eat different amounts of food according to their growth patterns.  For smaller appetites pack smaller serves eg. Cut sandwiches into quarters and chop up fruit so that there is still time to play.
Calcium is lacking in many children’s diets-provide a calcium-rich food like milk, cheese or yoghurt every day.  Children under five years of age need full cream milk and dairy products for extra energy.
Fruit has more fibre and less calories than fruit juice.  Make fruit a regular lunch box item.
Don’t forget water is an ideal drink for children and can easily be frozen in a drink bottle during the warmer school months.

Packing the Lunch Box
When you’re packing a school lunch, there are a few things you need to consider keeping the lunch cool.  If food is not stored properly bacteria in and on food can grow and make children 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.  Food such as meat or cheese sandwiches, milk, cheese and yoghurt need to be kept cool.

Here are some ideas:

• To keep food fresh, wrap sandwiches in plastic wrap or put in plastic snap lock bags.
• Get a lunch box that includes a small water bottle.  Fill the 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 over night.
• To reduce wrappings pack your child’s sandwich in a small sandwich container instead of a plastic bag or plastic wrap, this saves you money and keeps our school cleaner.

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.  Remember making home-made low fat muffins and biscuits is much cheaper and healthier than buying them in a packet.  Children love to help with simple cooking and baking.

Snack and Lunch Ideas