Junk food gets boot as school dishes out healthy meals

A PRIMARY school in Moyross, a disadvantaged part of Limerick, is way ahead of Tony Blair and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in tackling the junk food epidemic in the classroom.

It has pioneered a healthy food programme, with the distribution of healthy meal packs each day to children. Corpus Christi primary school’s initiative is now being replicated in other schools around the country.

A Spring Food Festival from April 25 to May 6 will also involve a chef showing children and their parents various ways to cook up a healthy meal.

The 346 boys and girls at Corpus Christi get freshly made sandwiches, fruit juices, spring water and a wide selection of fresh fruit each day without charge.

The healthy eating programme is funded by the Paul Partnership (People Against Unemployment in Limerick) and the Department of Family and Children. It costs around €50,000 a year to supply the food packs for free.

Parents who give children food to bring to school must comply with the school’s healthy eating policy as all fizzy drinks, sweets, lolly pops, crisps and chewing gum are banned.

School principal Áine Uí Chroimín said they brought in a professional dietician, Christine Gurnett, when starting the healthy eating programme.

“Junk food was a big issue, but Christine told us it was all about education and educating the pallet of children to healthy tastes,” Bean Uí Chroimín said.

“The fact that the children do not have fizzy drinks we find their ability to engage in class activities is improved as they are not hyper. All the teaching staff say the class rooms are much calmer,” she added.

She said there are occasional breaches of the junk food rule, but compliance was well over 90%.

The fresh food is delivered before the 10.30am first break each morning.

The children get ongoing advice about a healthy diet with the help of a healthy food pyramid which is moved around the classrooms.

“The pyramid tells the children what a healthy diet consists of and tells them about the importance of eating vegetables, cereals, proteins and carbohydrates. We get a very good response from parents and often when parents enrol a child they remark about the school’s healthy eating policy. Healthy food is central to education in the school,” Bean Uí Chroimín said.

This is the way education should go in every school, she said, particularly with both parents out working in many homes.

Ideally the school would like to expand the programme to include the provision of hot meals, but this would necessitate the building of a kitchen and canteen and engaging catering staff.