News
May 27, 2014
Lunchbox Blitz Project
South West Healthy Kids Lunchbox Blitz is a project which aims to support schools and families improve the quality of food children consume at school.
Lunch accounts for up to 35% of the daily food intake for children, making the lunchbox an important source of nutrition, and the school an important setting for improving children’s diet. Eating healthy nutritious lunches and snacks helps children concentrate and learn.
As part of the ongoing endeavour to support the health and wellbeing of the community Moyne Health Services, a partner of the South West Healthy Kids network (consisting of local community health, local government, and other health agencies), will be working with local primary schools communities to make lunch boxes healthier and reducing the number of energy-dense nutrient-poor packaged snacks that are in children’s lunch boxes.
The project, ‘Lunchbox Blitz – Attack on Packaged Snacks’ has been developed with the aim to provide parents, teachers and primary school children with a range of resources to help make lunch boxes healthier. It will raise awareness of the impact of packaged snacks consumed by children in school as well as support primary schools’ to improve the variety and availability of healthy food choices on lunch menus. The project is an initiative arising from a community needs assessment completed in Warrnambool, Mortlake, Port Fairy, Koroit, Macarthur, and Hawkesdale, which identified the poor quality of lunch box foods as a key concern.
Moyne Health Services will be working with local Port Fairy and Koroit primary schools to implement activities that encourage healthy dietary decisions for students and parents.
As part of the consultation process parents and staff will be asked to identify strategies for either at home or at their child’s school to encourage healthier eating choices and reduce the number of energy dense nutrient poor foods consumed and made available in the schools. Project findings will then be collated by the South West Healthy Kids network to produce resources that can then be shared throughout the Great South Coast region.