Lunchbox Audits

When I decided to become a children’s nutritionist, more than ten years ago – Geez! That long?! – I didn’t know what I know today and, as most people, I used to think that healthy eating was something to be taught in the same way we lecture students in a classroom.

So, to become a children’s nutritionist I sought robust education for myself and now know, from scientific evidence and my own experience working with children and families over the years, that there’s more to nutrition education than just plain lecturing.

I have learned that lecturing is only effective if the listener or reader can feel like they are learning something valuable to them, and also supported in the case they face difficulties to implement and maintain the valuable lesson they learned. But this can’t be done with young children who are in the initial phases of developing their language skills. So, children’s food education has to be done through the adults who care for them. They have to be lectured on behalf of their children. And the lecturer has to not only display good knowledge, but also empathy and has to be able to convey messages in a pragmatic, yet respectful way.

Recently, I’ve been quite vocal about my take on lunchbox patrolling, which by the way echoes several nutrition academics, like Dr. Kyla Smith who was interviewed for an article published on the ABC NEWS website saying that this practice may be causing more harm than good to Australian children.

I often talk about lunchbox. If you follow this content for a while, I’m sure you’re familiar with some previous blog articles like Lunchbox: Not Just A Box With Lunch, and social media posts about comforting food.

You must also be familiar with my non-judgmental attitude towards parents and other carers’ feeding style. I’m absolutely convinced that they are doing the best they can with the resources they have. And my utmost aim is to provide a valuable resource to help them do even better and achieve the results they want to achieve in feeding the children under their care.

So, I can’t be complacent with lunchboxes audits! This practice is judgmental, insensible and punitive. It imprints feelings of shame, failure and exposure. I know it is done with good intentions to educate and to ensure children’s health, but we need to work on other ways those things can be achieved.

The Pain

Years ago, I mentioned in a blog post a survey done by kidspot website in which they found that 65% of Australian mums who send lunchbox to school feel negative emotions related to it. Mostly dreading the scrutiny it may go through by their children’s teachers.

Australian School Mums is a Facebook group with more than fourteen thousand members, and every-now-and-then will have a mum asking for ideas of foods to send in their children’s lunchbox that will comply with their school’s “requirements”: absence of banned allergens, absence of banned processed foods, inclusion of “naked” veggies and fruit. Plus, they need to cater for their child’s preferences… well, acceptance really as most children will present a certain degree of fussiness about what foods they accept… and consider what the family can afford! PLUS, they need to find ways to plan, shop, prep, store, assemble, remember ice pack etc etc etc… no wonder many mums dread the job!

How can schools (and childcare centres and preschools) do better?

Designing a comprehensive food and nutrition policy is a good start. It’s a key resource to guide educators and teachers in how to act when in doubt about what is right and what is wrong with children’s lunchboxes. A good policy should be composed in consultation with the immediate community (staff and families), should not bear restrictive nor punitive statements, and should include a system of regular informative communication related to appropriate foods and drinks for children.

Following up, educational organisations have access to resources from state governments and other agencies to support them in designing food and nutrition policies and also with resources to be passed on to families. For example, in NSW, parents can access Eating at School for recommendations on appropriate foods to send in the lunchbox, and educational organisations can follow guidelines like the Department of Education’s Nutrition in Schools which RECOMMENDS schools to promote healthy eating; and programs like Munch & Move and Crunch & Sip ® which is also available in other states.

Nationally, there is Nutrition Australia with a myriad of excellent resources to support healthy eating for parents and educational settings. These are just a few of the agencies dedicated to healthy eating and feeding.

The important thing to highlight here is that there isn’t a mandatory model or a formal requirement for educational settings to do lunchbox checks. And healthy eating promotion is left to each organisation’s discretion.

What’s seems to be the problem is an out-of-date stance that stablishing food and drink rules will promote healthier eating in the educational setting. But this stance lacks the EDUCATION part. The part that instructs, supports and collaborates.

I know many organisations (childcare centres, preschools, schools etc) do have resources available for families such as regular newsletters and sessions with information and recommendation on healthy feeding, but not all, or maybe not enough or maybe not effective. I also know that educators and teachers do learn about nutrition and feeding in the qualification studies (I am a fellow educator as well), but the struggle is real at lunchtime when we are faced with food refusal and it is important to feel confident about how to handle it.

Eat Play Learn Nutrition offers workshops for families attending services and for professionals, of early childhood educational settings. These are designed to give parents and educators and cooks the confidence they may lack to manage fussy eating.