Healthy Kids School Canteen Association

Bulahdelah Central School

Naomi Eyre, the Canteen Manager from Bulahdelah Central School, has been actively greening her menu by introducing meal deals and by introducing a promotion named “Fresh Food Friday”. “Fresh Food Friday” works by introducing several fresh items to the regular canteen menu every Friday, for one school term. The items that are popular become part of the regular school menu. 

Successful “Fresh Food Friday” menu items that have been introduced by Naomi to Bulahdelah Central School include:

• Fruit salad served with low-fat ice-cream
• Caesar and chicken salads, made with low fat cheese, skinless chicken breast, croutons with no butter, ham, lettuce and eggs from the school farm, with a small amount of dressing.
• Quiche, made with fresh eggs from the school farm. Several varieties were introduced including ham and tomato, skinless chicken with sweet corn and vegetarian.
• Garlic bread, made from sliced bread stick with lite cream cheese and minced garlic and sold for 50c per slice.
• Pumpkin soup made from 70% Butternut Pumpkin, 25% Jap Pumpkin and 5% choco and skim milk powder and served in a styro-foam cup with garlic bread for $2.50.

In winter, healthy and warm meals will be served including reduced fat spaghetti bolognaise, chicken fettuccini and stuffed potatoes. Naomi says, “We have found the transition to a healthy canteen easy and smooth, as we started participating in the Healthy Canteen Award system several years ago. The transition has had the support of students, parents and staff and has also generated interest from the community.”