Drive-through lunches? Not at this school

By Shaun Inguanzo
A DANDENONG school is leading the charge against fatty foods in the schoolyard by banning parents from dropping lunchtime junk food meals to their children.
Dandenong South Primary School last year introduced a rule to stop the growing number of parents bringing fast food to their children at lunchtime.
The school is also revamping its canteen to be more nutritious and will next week launch a child fitness program.
Principal Leonie Fitzgerald said the ban was part of ingraining good nutritional habits into students to help cull childhood obesity.
“We also have fruit breaks now at school where we tell the children how good the fruit is for their bodies,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
“I don’t think our school community is any more focused on healthy eating than any other school.
“But we definitely have had an issue with fast food being brought into school children’s lunches.
“We are training the children to be more responsible and to take more control over their eating choices.”
Ms Fitzgerald said reasons parents had brought the food into the schoolyard ranged from a rewarding treat to being too busy in the morning to make lunches.
“We just spoke with the children and their parents too,” she said.
“We addressed them individually and the parents have been fantastic in supporting us.”
Ms Fitzgerald said the culture of eating had changed dramatically since the ban.
“The change was driven by a combination of the child asking for healthy food and parents realising there is a healthy alternative,” she said.
She said a canteen selling lots of lollies was shut down and was being revamped to be more healthy and a more exciting canteen.