Case study: Sawtell Public School Canteen

For many years now, Sawtell Public School has been working towards the creation of a healthy canteen and creating a positive culture towards healthy eating at their school.

Principal Michael Cheers said the school has been passionate about improving the ‘healthiness’ of its canteen and seeing the extinction of highly processed food options from the school menu.

“Over a period of time many of the less nutritious RED and AMBER foods have become undesirable lunchtime options. Thanks to the hard work of the canteen manager and her volunteers, these items have gradually been removed from the menu and replaced with much healthier options,” says Mr Cheers.

Cherie Rodger (the Canteen Manager) worked with the P&C and Canteen Committee including  Kylie Flavell who is one of the teachers at the school, to encourage children to make healthier choices so they could GREEN up their menu.

Saying no to nuggets

One of the first decisions made was to gradually phase out the chicken nuggets on the menu by making them a “Friday only” option and placing other fresher items on the menu for children to try. It wasn’t long before canteen volunteers discovered that nuggets were no longer being ordered at all, so they were easily able to scratch them from the menu.

In the past, the canteen sold sausage rolls that were supplied by a bakery. To improve their nutritional value and boost profits, Cherie decided to look into making their own sausage rolls that were packed with grated vegetables. To encourage students to try these “fresher” options, the traditional bakery sausage rolls were only sold at recess and the canteen-made sausage rolls were on offer at lunch and recess.

It wasn’t long before the bakery rolls were being ordered less and less and they could be removed from the menu altogether. In fact, one morning the canteen freezer broke down so all the remaining stocked bakery-made sausage rolls were placed on the menu to sell them off quickly. The canteen was pleasantly surprised to find that no one wanted to purchase them, instead requesting the canteen-made sausage rolls!

 Support matters

If it wasn’t for the support provided by the principal, staff, P&C and the wider school community, these healthy changes may not have been successful. To reinforce the healthy eating message throughout the whole school community, classes are involved in programs such as Crunch & Sip and the school participates in Fruit & Veg Month activities. Plus the school has a number of well-tended vegetable gardens to support teaching and learning in this area.

“A bumper crop of corn that was grown at the school was cooked up in the canteen and given to students at lunchtime as a free snack. This is a great way to get kids tasting new food that they can then purchase at the canteen in the future,” says Kylie.

There was an excess of pumpkins grown in the school garden, which prompted Year three and Mrs Andrews to hold a pumpkin soup day. This involved parents coming along to help the kids cook and serve the soup to other students and teachers.  The money raised was donated to the Coffs Harbour Soup kitchen. “This kind of project really demonstrates the opportunity to get the whole community involved in creating positive change,” says Mr Cheers.

And the winner is…!

Late last year, Sawtell Public School was successful in being selected as the inaugural winner of the Coffs Coast Healthy Canteen Awards. Sawtell PS submitted an idea that involved creating a spacious well-equipped canteen space where students, staff and cooking experts from the local community (i.e. local café’s and parent body) could conduct small group cooking sessions.

A community-working bee was held to extend the canteen space, new canteen equipment has been purchased and gardens planted with the aim of utilising the canteen as a fun and enjoyable learning environment for all the students.

Congratulations to Sawtell PS and the canteen for creating a healthy school that extends to the wider community!