What’s for Lunch? Your guide to healthy school lunches

Children need to eat a variety of foods everyday 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 the kids some choice about what they take for lunch, and if possible, get them involved with preparing the ‘healthier’ foods. Choosing food for a healthy lunch is easy. Use Nutrition Australia's Healthy Eating Pyramid to plan a healthy school lunch.

What’s a Healthy School Lunch?

• Start by choosing a variety of foods using the Healthy Eating Pyramid as a guide. This will ensure that your child is receiving adequate nutrition during the day.

• Don’t forget to include mainly breads and cereals (bread, rice, pasta etc), fruit and vegetables and moderate amounts of dairy and meat or meat alternatives.

• Bread is the most common lunch food for kids. A range of breads such as sliced bread (white, white high fibre, wholemeal, multigrain, rye); pita bread; kebab bread; bread rolls; and English muffins. Use a variety of fillings to keep children interested.

• The dairy products are particularly important, watch that your children are not replacing milk with juice all the time. Encourage children to drink water throughout the day.
• Save sweet and fatty treats for special occasions. In most children’s lives there are more than enough birthdays, holidays and other special occasions.
• Choose healthy snack food options including cheese sticks, canned or fresh fruit, rice cakes, pikelets etc.

• Don't forget water is an ideal drink for children.

Here is an example morning tea:

And an example lunch:

Plan Ahead!

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.

Packing a Lunch

When you’re packing a school lunch, there are a few things you need to consider keeping the lunch cool.

Keeping food cool

If food is not stored properly bacteria in and on food can grow and make us sick. That’s why it is important to keep school lunches cool. Lunches usually kept in children’s school bags all day, and are likely to get warm. Foods 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 snap-lock plastic bags.
• Get a lunch box that includes a small water bottle. Fill 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 overnight

Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

Lunch Ideas

• Fruit in season

• Vegetables with yoghurt

• Pita bread, filled with salad vegetables or tabouli and rissoles

• Water

• Pikelets

• Frozen UHT Milk

• Vegetarian pizza / or a sandwich

• Vegetable pack

• Fruit salad

• Yoghurt

• Fruit in season

• Egg, tomato and cheese sandwich

• Vegetable sticks

• Slice of fruit loaf

• Dried fruit and nuts

• Frozen UHT Milk drink

• Fruit in season

• Bread roll filled with vegetables, cheese and slice of lean roast beef

• Frozen UHT Milk

• Grapes

• Mixed nuts**

** While nuts are a nutritious inclusion to the diet of children, It is recommended that you consult with your school regarding anaphylactic or nut allergy policies prior to including nuts or products containing nuts in your childs lunchbox.

The Tuckshop

It is possible for children to be well fed from the tuckshop. Give your child guidance on how to spend their money. Nutrition Australia has a "Nutrition in Schools" program to assist school tuckshops develop healthier menus and ideas for teachers on how to best support the tuckshop’s endeavours. Nutritious choices from the tuckshop include hamburgers, sandwiches and rolls, salads, fruit, and milk drinks. Tuckshop convenors can increase choice by stocking healthy alternatives of the traditional not-so-healthy choices such as low fat pies and low fat sausage rolls.

For more information Nutrition Australia recommends

Healthy Food for Families

Nutrition in Schools Advisory Service

Children's Nutrition Kit