Do our school tuck shops promote junk food?

Press, 26 July 1980, Page 10

Do our school tuck shops promote junk food?

Concern about the poor standards of nutrition education in our primary schools is growing. Parents feel that, at times, there appears to be a lack of responsibility by school authorities about school food programmes. Food is sometimes provided in schools by commercial “tuck-shops.” Sometimes the food is provided by a school committee. Some groups of parents do try to monitor

foods which are sold to children through the par-ent-teacher organisation. USEFUL N.Z. STUDY Because of this particular concern, a group from the advanced course in dental nursing studies in Wellington ' undertook a survey and questionnaire of all” schools in the Wellington Education Board area. One 'hundred and ninety-one state primary, 45 private primary, 18 intermediate. 26 state secondary and 18 private secondary schools were surveyed. Of .the primary, schools, three were selected from the alphabetical list using random-order selection. Questions were asked which gave the opportunity for multiple-choice answers. The questionnaires were tested in a small,‘sample study first. Later the questionnaires. together with explanatory letters were sent to the various schools with stamped, addressed envelopes. It was interesting that 100 per cent of intermediate and state secondary schools answered the questionnaire, .suggesting I real concern and caring. The lowest. percentage answering was 60 per cent in the private .primary schools. No explanation for this was given by the authors of this paper, recently published in the Journal

of the New Zealand Dietetic Association. They do, however, indicate that the number of schools which did not have a food programme was quite low. What children eat for lunch should be a major educational topic of. considerable nutritional importance. to primary and secondary schools. Despite ■this, more than half of the food supply came from a local shop. Here, surely, commercial interests predominate? It was only in the state secondary' schools, and in the ' private secondary schools that “tuck-shops”

amenable to a policy requiring them to sell healthy foods, predominated. Sevent-four per cent of food in state secondary schools came • from the school “tuck-shop.” Surely there is an urgent ' need to upgrade the nutritional knowledge of teachers. They organised approximately half of. the food sources in the primary schools. In the majority of cases, this food was damaging to health. FATTY FOODS When foods and drinks supplied by schools, in order of frequency, were analysed, it was found

that 80 per cent of schools supplied meat pies, 60 to 79 per cent either fruit or meat pies, and 40 to 59 per cent supplied savouries,‘sausage .rolls, “hotdogs,” yoghurt or filled rolls. So it • is a very distrubing fact that more than half of' all schools supplied over-fatty foods. These are recognised' to be damaging in our calorieexcessive, New Zealand ■ diet. And they are particularly unhelpful to the complexions of teenaged New Zealanders. Much more disturbing is the fact that less than 20 per cent of all the schools surveyed were stocking cheese, soup, fruit juice, low-fat milk, sandwiches, fish, sausages, chips or hamburgers. When we come to' intermediate and secondary schools, only the state secondary schools appeared to supply cheese, soup, sandwiches, fruit drinks and filled rolls in more than 50 per cent of outlets. This excellent research project was supervised by Peter. B. Hunter, Principal Dental Research Officer in the Department of Health, working with 12 people from the advanced course in Dental Nursing Studies who' were looking at the consumption of sweets in schools. In doing so, they have pronounced evidence which shows that in the Wellington region at least,

sweet foods are rarely available in primary and intermediate schools and that high-fat foods, are almost, the . only ones available in the early years of school. HELP YOUR CHILDREN Guidelines have been set by a recent working party on nutritional education in schools. These may be helpful in what is now generally agreed is an urgent necessity in our society — an immediate 10 per cent reduction of the fat content in our diet Substitutes should be unrefined and fbire-rich carbohydrates, and. fresh fruit and vegetables. Popular foods were not sweets and cakes, but pies and yoghurt. Points in favour of these foods were that they were convenient to handle, filling, and generally of reasonable nutritional value. This study is useful. It show’s that a small, but determined, input into the educational system in New Zealand may pay enormous dividends hi motivating young people to make good food choices for healthy living in the future. You can assist with your children’s health by asking at Parent-Teacher Association meetings about the food-teaching and food-supplying policies of your school. An active involvement by more concerned parents is essential if we are to improve school food programmes. _____