School canteens under fire for flouting unhealthy lunch items plan

Miawling Lam

Sunday Telegraph, 7 February 2010

DOUGHNUTS, meat pies and lollies are still being served in school canteens six years after the NSW Government promised to ban them.

Parents and nutritionists have slammed the NSW Fresh Tastes @ School strategy as a toothless tiger following revelations fatty foods remain a mainstay on some school tuckshop menus.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has revealed schools are not penalised for ignoring the Government's junk-food ban.

Under the policy, announced in 2004 by former premier Bob Carr, schools were to sell rye-bread sandwiches, kidney bean salads and frozen fruit rather than cream-filled buns and sweet pastries.

Potato chips, custard tarts, croissants and chocolate-coated ice creams were not to be sold more than twice a term. Soft drinks were banned completely.

Child obesity was a key issue before the last State election. In 2006, then premier Morris Iemma told Parliament: "Schools have a duty of care to our children, and no duty is more important than protecting our children's health. Schools are no place for junk food. Kids go to school to learn and grow.

"By taking junk food out of our canteens, we are doing them a favour that will last a lifetime."

But some public primary and high schools are flouting the rules because there are no penalties.

For example, the canteen at Sydney Boys High School sells custard-ball doughnuts, Boost chocolate bars, soft drinks, meat pies and pizza slabs. Balgowlah Heights Public School offers chicken nuggets, choc-chip muffins and hot dogs, while Winston Heights Public School sells two-minute noodles and hash browns.

Healthy Kids School Canteen Association general manager Jo Gardner said schools were struggling to comply with the guidelines.

"Lots of schools continue to provide food-menu items that still have too much sugar and fat in them," Ms Gardner said.

Food sold in school canteens is classified as red, amber or green according to its nutritional value. However, companies such as Mrs Mac's Pies and Smith's Snackfood have modified their products to get around the rules.

Ms Gardner said pies, sausage rolls and pizzas were now smaller and lower in fat to ensure they met health guidelines.

She blamed the proliferation of pre-packaged "amber" foods on the lack of tuckshop volunteers and the limited infrastructure in schools.

"If you want to provide a service to your school, how do you do it when you've only got a facility that can heat and serve?" Ms Gardner said. "You will look to those packaged foods to do that."

A Department of Education spokesman confirmed schools were not penalised for failing to meet the guidelines.

"Where schools are experiencing difficulties in fully implementing the strategy, we are working closely with them to make changes," he said. "We concentrate on assisting schools to make the change, not penalising them," he said.

More than $750,000 has been spent implementing and promoting the scheme to convince schools to speed up compliance. NSW Parents and Citizens' Federation spokeswoman Helen Walton said schools had no excuses for not complying with the guidelines.

She said information was regularly sent out to canteen managers and principals but conceded it was hard to change the junk-food culture.

"It's going to take a while for them to all change to a healthy menu," she said. "People don't like change."

Ms Walton said one of the main issues was that non-compliant schools were not penalised.

"I don't know if there really are a lot of consequences," she said.

"Guidelines were put in place, but I'm not sure whether there are actually any big sticks to hit them over the head if they are doing the wrong thing."

Oatley father of four Greg Wyer believes it is important for his children to eat healthily.

"We make our kids' lunches probably 90 per cent of the time," Mr Wyer said.

"Although schools have policies about not serving up crappy stuff, we prefer to have control over what our kids are eating."