Eating well impacts children’s health and wellbeing

Research indicates that eating well and being active are critical to children’s health and wellbeing in both the short and long term. They also have a direct impact on children’s performance at school.  

The school day is busy, filled with learning, concentration and physical activity. Food is fuel for our bodies and healthy food provides your child with energy and nutrients to get them through a busy day at school. Children will have the best chance of getting all the nutrition they need if they are offered a variety of tasty and healthy foods every day. 

As a school we have been trying to become more sustainable and aware of our contribution to rubbish and landfill.  We are encouraging all families to be more aware of the amount of packaging which often appears in lunch boxes.  Nude food lunch boxes have been a focus for a number of years.  Nude foods are food items that are free from disposable packaging. So, essentially, the children are trying to bring their food to school in their lunch box….nude!  The idea of this approach is to reduce the amount of rubbish in our school bins and ultimately, begin to have a positive environmental impact on our planet.

Nude foods are fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains and water, providing healthy vitamins and essential nutrients for growing bodies. They’re also generally unprocessed, which means less store-bought convenience snacks and drinks, which are often laden with sugar and unhealthy additives.

Some suggestions for making a nude food lunch box are:

1. Go rubbish-free: Remove all packaging from the lunch box. Use containers or a compartmentalised lunch box to store various foods instead of cling wrap, ziplock bags or snacks with commercial packaging.
2. Plan ahead: Use your time over the weekend to bake a big batch of healthy homemade treats, such as protein balls, slices and wholemeal muffins. Ration these out by serving and either freeze them and grab them as you need or keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.
3. Do some DIY: Consider alternatives to favourite store-bought food products.
4. Balancing act: You can balance your child’s lunch box each day by including fruit, vegetables, a source of protein (such as meat), wholegrains (such as bread or brown rice) and water.
5. Get them involved: Most importantly, get your child involved and encourage them to take part in the planning and preparation of their nude food lunch box. This will ensure they are proactive and invested in it.

Involve your children in healthy choices

School is a time when children start to make independent choices about their lifestyles. School aged children learn quickly and are influenced by friends and popular trends. This is an important time to talk about and encourage healthy food habits. 

Involving children in planning and preparing their own lunch boxes gives them the opportunity to learn about healthy eating, and also gives them a chance to make decisions about what they will be eating during the day.

Some tips to help get your kids involved include:

• Talk to your children about what they would like to have in their lunchbox. Discuss healthier food and drink choices and decide what will be in the lunchbox together.
• Write a shopping list together. Take your children shopping with you and let them choose foods and drinks from the shopping list.
• Encourage your children to help prepare their lunchboxes. Older children may be able to prepare most of their lunch themselves, and younger children can help with making sandwiches or cutting up soft fruit. It is a good idea to prepare lunch boxes the evening before to allow children to participate

Together we have an important role to play in helping our children fulfil their healthy growth and development potential by promoting healthy eating.  Let’s work together to ensure our children are fueled for a full day of learning at school.