Promoting healthier lunch boxes can:
• inspire pupils’ interest in making healthier choices about
their diet;
• support the Division of Education’s nourishing standards for
school lunches;
• encourage a whole school tactic to healthy eating;
• rise the contact between school and home;
• support your school’s community links;
• give parents relevant information on aspects of food and health.
Why focus on healthier lunchboxes?
A lunch box provides a valuable influence towards a child’s
nutritional supplies for a day. According to the Section of
Education’s 2008 school census , over 127,000 children in Northern
Ireland (42% of pupils present) seized a packed lunch to school.2
An all-island study (2005) looking at the nourishing balance of
over 2,500 school children’s packed lunches found that 9 out
of every 10 lunch boxes (92%) contained foods high in fat and
sugar.3 Almost half of all crowded lunches (47%) had no portions of
fruit and plant and over two thirds of lunch boxes (71%) did not
meet the compulsory school meals standards for North Ireland.
Similar research lead by the Food Standards Agency in
2004 also specified that children who take a packed lunch to
school are eating far too much fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar in
one meal.4 The survey also exposed that under a fifth of lunch
boxes (16%) did not contain any solemn food such as sandwiches,
pasta or rice, and that just under half the lunch boxes surveyed
(48%) did not comprise a portion of fruit or chopped vegetables.
Three out of four lunch boxes (74%) also failed to meet the
nutritional standards set in 2001 for England’s schools meals.
Clearly, there is a need to make lunch boxes healthier and more
appetizing to pupils. But this does not mean that they should miss
out on all the things that they enjoy eating. Diversity is the key to a
healthier lunch box. It is all about getting a balance and a good
variety of foods over a period of time, for example a week. No single
food can provide all the important nutrients that the body needs.
