Bright Ideas To Take The Panic out of Packed Lunch

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3 Just about every parent is familiar with the lunchbox dilemma what to give your children that s both healthy and fun. A healthy lunchbox should help improve your child s attention, behaviour and learning throughout the day and into the afternoon. It should also provide one third of your child s daily requirements of nutrients. The idea behind Bright Ideas To Take The Panic out of Packed Lunch came from the parents and staff at Prestonpans Infants School, who were concerned about the rise in the number of less healthy snack foods that children were bringing into school in their packed lunch boxes. These included a number of products marketed specifically for packed lunches, which are often high in fat, sugar and salt, as well as less healthy, highly processed items such as sausage rolls, fizzy juice, crisps and chocolate. A diet that s high in fat, high in salt and high in refined carbohydrates diminishes mental alertness so a child eating these kinds of foods is likely to end up tired towards the end of the day.also a diet high in saturated fat and salt can lay the foundations for heart disease and high blood pressure later in life. Such a diet may also lead to obesity. It can be a challenge for parents to regularly come up with different ways to entice children to eat healthily at school.yet the importance of eating healthily, particularly during school hours cannot be underestimated. The leaflet aimed to offer advice and guidance for parents and carers on how to prepare healthy balanced lunches that won t break the bank and, most importantly, that children would enjoy eating. 1

4 The brief from parents and staff was clear. They wanted a leaflet that was: A selection of recipes that a child would actually enjoy eating. After all, there would be no point in buying the ingredients and preparing the food if it were to be left untouched by the children. Easy to understand and practical. Designed to fit into family life and based on a selection of everyday store cupboard foods. A range of menus that offered choice and variety. Add to that, a design that was user friendly and able to stand up to regular usage, and the concept for the leaflet was beginning to take shape. It was important to generate interest from pupils, parents and the school community in the packed lunch project. With this in mind, 3 teams of three Primary 3 pupils were recruited to work alongside ELC Development Officer, Food and Health, and NHS Lothian Oral Health Specialist to carry out an audit on packed lunch box contents. This process gave us a baseline from which we could see if any changes occur as a result of our activities. 2

5 The information gathered provided a valuable insight into the popularity of many of the foods and drinks specifically targeted at the packed lunch market that can be found on the supermarket shelves.these products also tend to be heavily advertised to children. Next came a series of three focus groups with pupils from Primaries 2 and 3. During these sessions, children were encouraged to discuss their food likes and dislikes and share their views and opinions on what they consider acceptable packed lunch items. This was followed with 3 outings to the local supermarket, where the pupils looked at a variety of the products they had identified as suitable.they compared and contrasted different products and looked at price and quantity to ascertain value for money, as well as ingredients. 3

6 Once we had come up with a list of acceptable foods that fitted the criteria, we invited primary 3 pupils and their parents to taste test the recipe ideas and tell us what they thought. As Helen Gardyne, Acting Head Teacher at that time said: Many of our children enjoy bringing a packed lunch to school so they particularly enjoyed creating a variety of quick and easy to prepare ideas to fill them up and keep alert for an afternoon in class.these choices were made by the children and for children who better to know what will appeal to such discerning palates than the experts themselves! Based on the feedback from the tasting session, a two-week menu cycle was devised, featuring ideas for fresh, tasty and healthy lunch options. As well as 10 menu ideas, there are hints and tips on keeping food fresh throughout the school day, what makes a balanced diet and how to make the whole family take an interest in healthy eating. The leaflet was then distributed to every Primary 1 pupil in the Lothians, as part of their NHS Lothian Oral Health pack. 4

7 In May 2008, about 8 months after the leaflet was distributed, we surveyed parents and carers at Prestonpans Infant and Nursery school to find out how useful they had found it. Over 40 individuals responded, and the results are recorded below: Yes No Does your child ever bring packed lunch to school? Does your child have a say in what they have in a packed lunch? 32 5 Did you find Bright Ideas To Take The Panic Out Of Packed Lunch useful? 34 4 Do you use some of the recipe ideas? Many parents took the opportunity to add a comment.these included: My son likes packed lunches.the leaflet is useful because it gives a good range of foods. I will be trying some of the recipe ideas as my son is very keen to try them too. Some more recipes would be helpful. Maybe cool packs/ boxes in class. If it s a cold day I prefer my son to have a hot lunch, he always picks a healthy option i.e. baked potato or soup. My daughter enjoys school dinners. Shannan only eats certain items during the day i.e. fruit, carrot sticks, water, sandwich etc I would send my child with a packed lunch but previously she has brought home almost everything I gave her and said she didn t get time to eat it! Sam only has tuna sandwich and won t try anything else. Anna will have a packed lunch once a week in the summer. I very rarely give Becky cake or biscuits in lunch as I agree with the healthy eating policy. However, leaflet shows muffins and choc rolls that surprised me. 5

8 Later that month, we paid an unannounced visit to the school to see first hand if there had been any difference in what the children were eating at lunchtime. The change was impressive.there was very little evidence of the high fat and salt prepackaged products that had been so popular and many more children were now eating brown bread sandwiches and rolls or had tubs of pasta, chicken and tuna salads. Most had a piece of fruit or a pot of chopped up vegetables. Compared to the original audit carried out in December 2006, there were considerably less high sugar drinks and fizzy juice in evidence and more water, low sugar drinks and fruit squash being consumed. Sylvia Graham, Dining Room Supervisor at Prestonpans Infants School confirmed our observations. She said, I have noticed a definite improvement over the last few months in what the children are bringing in. Hardly anyone has Lunchables any more, and I see a lot more fresh fruit and fruit juice, low fat crisps and home made salads. It was apparent that there had been a change for the better in what the children were eating and it is hoped that this will in turn lead to an improvement in their ability to concentrate, their behaviour and their health generally. 6

9 An Oral Health Perspective The current statistics show that over 50% of the children entering primary 1 (age 5) in Scotland have had experience of tooth decay. There are many social and economic factors that have contributed to these figures but the fact remains it s hard to escape new stories on the state of our children s teeth appearing in the news every week.the key messages for reducing and preventing tooth decay are: Reduce the amount and frequency of sugar intake Limit sugary snacks to mealtimes Brush at least twice daily with toothpaste containing at least 1000ppm fluoride Attend the dentist on a regular basis i.e. every 6 months New research reveals that dental professionals are also seeing an increase in the effects of acid erosion on children s teeth. This is caused by the acids located in everyday foods found in most children s diets, such as fizzy drinks and fruit juice drinks, eroding the surface enamel on the teeth that over time can affect their appearance. Throughout the course of our work during school health weeks, Marjorie and I discovered that we were trying to get across the same common messages but from a differing angle. Marjorie would explain the importance of a healthy balanced diet from a dietary point of view, and my self from a 7

10 dental angle.when the Head Teacher of Prestonpans Infants School contacted us with concerns over the state of her pupil s teeth and the contents of their snack and packed lunch boxes, we saw this as an ideal opportunity to produce something with consistent common messages. During the process of developing this leaflet we were able to increase awareness of the importance of good dietary and tooth brushing habits to not only the pupils and staff at Prestonpans Infants and Nursery School but also their parents and the wider community.the leaflet has been distributed to every Primary 1 child across Lothian. It has also been used in many community and leisure centres, at health fairs and exhibitions, for community groups, food and health groups and requests for the leaflet are coming in from out with the Lothian area. The process also allowed for multi disciplinary working calling on the expertise of health promotion specialists, dieticians, dentists, community development workers, designers and printers, van drivers who helped with the distribution of the leaflets. Evaluation of the leaflet included a return visit to Prestonpans Infants School and I was surprised at the change in contents of the children s packed lunch boxes. Gone were the pre packed cheese, ham and biscuits, high fat sausage rolls, high sugar juice drinks, cakes and biscuits and in were brown bread sandwiches, pasta, salad, water and no added sugar drinks.this demonstrates a change in knowledge, attitude and behaviour and hopefully through time we will see improvements in the children s general and dental health. 8

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12 For more information on this project, please contact Marjorie Shepherd Development Officer, Food and Health East Lothian Council Tel: or Carol Golightly NH Lothian Oral Health Tel: With grateful thanks to the children, staff and parents of Prestonpans Infants and Nursery School for their participation and enthusiasm for this project.