The school’s achievement is part of New South Wales’ Healthy School Canteen Strategy which aims to tackle childhood obesity by ensuring students have access to healthy canteen menu options that will help them to develop lifelong healthy eating habits.
Two St Paul’s parents, Mary Milevski and Edna Martin, were instrumental in helping develop the new healthy canteen menu.
The pair spent months reviewing the old menu and negotiating with Renee Reynolds, Project Officer from Hunter New England Population Health, to ensure the new menu met the new Healthy Canteen guidelines.
Some of the new menu items include butter chicken, carbonara pasta, frozen oranges and watermelon, yoghurt and muesli cups, the St Paul’s Burger and Chill-J which is 100% sparkling fruit juice.
In recognition of these efforts, St Paul’s was presented with the Healthy School Canteen Badge & Certificate by Renee Reynolds and Matthew Pettott, who is also a Project Officer from Hunter New England Population Health.
St Paul’s aims to continue encouraging healthy eating habits in students with a daily ‘fruit break’. The school will also be encouraging students to bring healthier food options from home.
“Having a healthy canteen means students have diverse and nutritious menu options available to them,” said Gregory Cumming, Principal at St Paul’s.
“These options not only help fuel learning and growing, they benefit the whole school community,” he added.
