THE SCHOOL LUNCH BOX.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 21

THE SCHOOL LUNCH BOX.

(Contributed by the Home Science Extension Service.) We have talked much in these columns of the value of well-balanced meals and of the great importance of correct nutrition. Most especially have we realised the need for right nutrition during childhood. We have discussed ways and means of planning, preparing and serving the right combination of foodstuffs so that our growing boys and girls will be supplied with all the needful materials for the building of strong, healthy bodies. In order to provide a sufficient quantity of all the foodstuffs, three regular meals are necessary —each of these meals is as important as the other two—each one must be complete and well-balanced. To those of us who have the children at home for every meal, the problem is a fairly easy one, but there are some who have to pack one of these meals into a school lunch box. This is a problem in itself and one which requires thought and planning in solving. When we think that lunch time is preceded by a long fast during which the child’s breakfast has been completely digested and used up, we realise that lunch is a very important and much needed meal—it is required to provide one-third of the total food required during the whole day. The question is, what are we going to do about it? As we have said before, it is ideal to have the children return home for the midday meal, but this is not always possible and many of us wave good-bye to them at 8 o’clock in the morning and do not see them again till 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Lunch must therefore be prepared and packed as a daily task. Unfortunately it has to be done at a time of day when we are at our very busiest, and it is such a temptation just to make a few jam or meat sandwiches, wx - ap them up in a piece of paper and thrust them into the school bag. But think for a moment. By the time that bag has bumped its way to school on Bobby’s back, has been thrown down in the playground while Bobby has a game of marbles and it has been jerked open several times to allow him to extract a book, the poor lunch inside it doesn’t look very appetising by the time Bobby comes to oat it. Is it any wonder that he would rather run off for a game of football, or that Mary looks at it and then nibbling at a corner of a battered sandwich feels that she doesn’t want any more? Or even worse than this, we may have succumbed to the temptation of giving Bobby sixpence to buy his own lunch—you know very well what that purchase will be—a meat pic or half a. dozen cakes! Which is the greater mistake? To allow the children to go lunchless or to allow them to eat a quantity of sweet carbohydrate which supplies them with no body-Building material at all? It is difficult to say, but we do know that there is absolutely no excuse for our making either. It is our duty as mothers to see that the mid-day lunch is all that it should be —nutritious, well-bal-anced, satisfying—and it is our duty too to see that it is made to look so appetising and attractive that Bobby and Mary will want to eat it. This does not mean the putting of a largo slice of cake on top of the package! There are other ways of making it attractive. Five small sandwiches are just as easy to make as two large thick ones, and are much nicer to eat! Wrapped in white kitchen paper or greaseproof paper, and packed in a tiny case or box, the lunch looks much more appetising than when it is wrapped up into a newspaper package. But attractiveness is not the only aim. We must not forget food values. If the lunches are to be such as to help our boys and girls to grow into strong, healthy men and women, we must see that the kind of food we give them is the right kind. We might pack an exceedingly attractive-looking lunch solely of pink and white iced biscuits, but what about the food value? Attractiveness then is important, but not wholly so. The lunch must contain some of each food class —flesh and boneforming foods, energy-providing foods, vitamins and minerals —all must be represented in good proportions. How is it to be managed? Does it involve extra time and work? Wo shall see. No lunch seems to ho complete without sandwiches, so let us consider them first. Brown bread contains more minerals, more bran, and more vitaanins, and is really of more value to children than is white bread, so let the sandwiches bo of brown. Then comes the question of fillings—it is so easy just to use jam, but after all we are thinking not of what is easiest but of what is best —egg and celery, cheese and lettuce, Marmite and lettuce, Marmite and cheese, dates and nuts, and, of course, tomato. All of these aic delicious and are much better than meat, pickles or jam. Some of them, the date and nut and raisin and nut, can be made in a few minutes and put in a glass jar for use when required. Now, what about cake? Usually cakes are soft and sweet and dentists all tell us that there is nothing which causes teeth to decay more than sweet, soft food. All children seem to have a natural liking for cake, but they also have a horror of toothache! Besides, sugar and pure white flour, which are the main ingredients of all our cakes, contain no minerals that could bo used for building teeth. So, instead of cake, lot us substitute home made wholemeal biscuits, bran biscuits or rolled oat wafers —these are hard and crisp, require chewing, are less sweet than cakes, less expensive, and have a much higher food value. Then there is one more thing we must not forget. No lunch is complete without it —milk. We know that milk is the very best source of calcium, which is the mineral so necessary for the formation of good bones and teeth. Have you ever thought of putting a little baked custard into the lunch box? It will carry well in an old cup with no handle, and is a good way of introducing milk and vegetables. What little hoy or girl is going to run off to a game and leave a delicious little vegetable custard uneaten? Even if Bobby hates drinking milk —he is sure to be thrilled to eat a little custard ‘ all for himself.’ Try it and see. We can easily make the custard in a few minutes the night before. Then we tuck an apple, peach or orange into the corner of the box and the uncli is complete. The acid of the fruit eaten after the rest of the lunch causes an increased flow of saliva which not only washes the teeth but helps in the digestion of the food eaten. In some schools during winter, the children are provided witli a hot drink, cocoa or soup, during the lunch hour. This is an excellent idea and one which we should encourage and support. We all like something hot in the middle of a wintry day, do we not? If we. in the house feel the need of it, what about the children who have been sitting inert in a schoolroom for two or three hours? We cannot lay down any definite plan, but ways and means are better discussed between parents and teachers. Whether it is a hot drink prepared and served to the children at school, or whether the children are permitted to heat up x:iy dish which they have brought from home, our main aim is to get tun'd of the idea, discuss it, and introduce it into our schools in however simple a form This is something which can be brought about collectively aud by cooperation between all parents and teachers, but individually, we ean see to it that the lunches we give the buys and girls to take to school are all that they should be—well balanced, nutritious, satisfying and attractive little meals.