Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Who ate all the cake


Certain foods are to be banned from school canteens and tucks shops.

This is an attempt by the Government to takle the obesity problem in New Zealand, and is part of the Mission On project.

Whilst the theory of such a move is good, the rules mean that principals and teachers and BOTs and school councils etc etc are all going to have to spend attempting to get such rules in place and this will take away from time that is better spent trying to improve school kids learning.

As pointed out by some students and teachers, many students (high school) leave the grounds over lunchtime and can get whatever they want, in Wellington the girls high is opposite Thorndon New World and Wellington Boy's in just around the corner from McD's.

I think the schools should definitely be attempting to take unhealthy foods out of their tuck shops, but it should not be regulated.

I only had a tuck shop while at Intermediate and all is sold was an assortment of ice creams and ice blocks, chippies and Cookie Time Biscuits, we also had the option of getting a purchased lunch where you selected from a range of bakery style foods ie sausage rolls, pies, raspberry buns.

At high school we had our own food lockers (boarding school) where we could keep food, and when I started in 2000 we had a coke machine on the grounds but this was soon replaced with a milk machine where we could purchase flavoured milk or juice or water as a healthier alternative, we also had a few phases where bananas were handed out at morning tea time, all initiative taken by the school without need for legislation.

1 comment:

Just my opinion said...

You don't need regulation, nor do you need a government telling people when it is a parents job to teach people about good food and exercise.