There have been some parent concerns raised in the parent survey regarding the types of food sold in our canteen so I would like to have a quick chat about the Fresh Tastes NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy, which is a government endorsed approach that assists schools to determine the healthier types of foods for sale in their canteens, and how we (the canteen committee) apply it to our canteen menu. This strategy puts foods into 3 groups.
GREEN: We encourage and promote this category which has good nutritional value with less fat, sugar and/or salt. These foods include fruit, vegetables, breads, reduced fat dairy products, lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs and plain water. These foods should dominate the menu.
AMBER : is a "select carefully" category and these foods will still have nutritional value, only moderate amounts of fat, sugar and/or salt and must be below a certain number of kilojoules. Some examples are savoury pastries, pasta, pizza, frankfurters, crumbed and coated foods (e.g nuggets). We can have a certain percentage of these foods on the menu and when incorporated with salad items (e.g. Chicken chippy wrap has lettuce, carrot and tomato) their nutritional value is increased.
RED: The red category is determined by the Energy (kJ) per serve and includes items such as snack food bars and biscuits, sugar sweetened drinks and ices, ice creams, cakes and pastries.
IN OUR CANTEEN:
** All ice creams, muffins and drinks that we sell are within the Energy (kJ) and serving size guidelines so that they are NOT in the red category. In fact many are in the GREEN category.
** WE TRY TO AVOID RED CATEGORY ITEMS ON OUR MENU.
** All savoury pastries (e.g. pizza roundas, sausage rolls, pizza) are in the AMBER category. We limit the sale of some items for purchase one day a week and this allows other GREEN items to dominate the menu. For example Wednesday is the only day that pies, hot dogs and sausage rolls (low fat) are available.
** The winter menu provides hot food (AMBER) options but salad items (GREEN) are available in the wraps, burgers and, to some extent, in toasted sandwiches.
** Salad items are always in the canteen so if your child would just prefer a salad sandwich please let me know. We also have fresh fruit available at all times although it is not always listed on the menu as it is seasonal.
** We do have a RED category item and that is our Sun fruit faces lollies. I am reluctant to take these off the menu as they are a treat and are also made of mostly fruit juice so they are probably the best choice of a lolly (if there is one). We sell them in bags of 10 lollies and only 2 bags are allowed to be purchased. Therefore limiting how many the children can buy at once.
So, please let me reassure you that we do try to maintain a healthy canteen menu. All items are checked for nutritional content and disregarded if they do not meet the guidelines to at least be in the AMBER category or preferably GREEN.
If you have any queries, ideas or suggestions please come in and see me in the canteen anytime. We are open every day between 8.30am and 12.30pm.