Healthy Kids School Canteen Association

Narrabeen North Public School gets the Green Light

Now that the Red “occasional” foods have gone from the menu, some schools such as Narrabeen North are taking the next step with huge efforts to fill their menu with “Green” foods and reduce the “Amber” foods to a minimum.

Lunchtime menus are often dominated by the Amber hot foods. However, North Narrabeen limits the sale of low fat pies and sausage rolls to once per week.

Cold lunches filled with Green foods include a variety of salad packs with egg, fish or chicken, a variety of healthy ‘subs’, sushi (once a week) and fruit salad tubs. A ‘Healthy, Happy Meal Deal’ containing a salad or a sub, a fruit stick and a bottle of water is available each day for $4.00.

Green snack foods dominate the menu at recess. In fact 11 out of the 12 morning tea menu items are Green foods. These include bread sticks, frozen fruit shots, fruit sticks (3 pieces of fruit on a skewer), frozen pineapple rings, popcorn, apple slinkies, cracker boxes with vegetables and low fat cheese and crackers.

Canteen Manager Sue Montgomery has found that serving Green foods does not mean a decrease in profits.  Profits have remained about the same as previous years. Sue points out that sales have increased markedly from last year, which indicates that parents are giving children more money to spend and children are happy to buy despite not having Red foods on the menu.

Sue encourages her students to buy Green foods by promoting them well. She has all the Green foods on display on the counter so that students can see what is available. Menu boards feature laminated photos of Green foods for sale. The salad packs have appealing names such as “Narra Sharks”, “Mr Egg Head”, Nippers and Mermaids” and “Thorpie’s Special”. Occasional taste testing of new foods helps to promote the healthy foods. Sue also discounts the price of Green foods compared to the Amber foods to help encourage sales.