Hearty Lunchboxes for Gisborne Children
- Created: Thursday, 15 October 2015 00:30
Cornerstone Preschool in Gisborne worked with children and their whānau to give lunchboxes a heart-healthy makeover
Why they became involved in the Healthy Heart Award
Cornerstone Preschool is a community-based preschool that has been around for 27 years. Its staff are passionate about ensuring children have the best possible start to life, and one area they identified as having room for improvement was the contents of children’s lunchboxes.
The preschool’s earlier participation in the Healthy Heart Award meant it was already meeting the requirements of the first-level award, which is called Rito and helps preschools to put healthy foundations in place. However, Cornerstone was interested in making further changes to encourage healthy habits. They saw the Healthy Heart Award as a way to ensure they were doing everything they could to promote good habits for the children, that would lead to healthier lives in the long term.
Staff saw that some children were bringing unhealthy food to preschool in their lunchboxes, and some whānau were struggling to provide healthy food for their children. Through participating in the Healthy Heart Award, Cornerstone Preschool wanted to:
• Help whānau to provide healthy food for children
• Educate whānau on healthy eating to improve children’s lunchboxes and the food eaten at home
What they did
Developed policies: Staff started with draft policies that had been put online by the Heart Foundation, and adapted them to work for their preschool. The new policies were sent home for parents to sign.
Lunchbox reminders: Cornerstone staff made a list of foods they thought should be left out of lunchboxes, including fizzy drinks, chocolate bars, and lollies. When they found those foods in children’s lunches they sent notes home, but found it was more effective to speak with parents directly.
Spoke to parents in their first language: Many of the Cornerstone families/whānau understood better when staff spoke to them in their first language.
Held themed healthy eating days: These included ‘Cooking Tuesdays’, where the preschool prepared food together – such as making club sandwiches with lettuce grown in the Cornerstone garden. They also held cultural food days that featured healthy approaches to traditional food.
Held family sports days: These fun events were really successful at getting parents involved.
The changes that happened
• Lunchbox contents improved for many children, changing from unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks to healthier alternatives
• Whānau think food provided by the preschool is very good and healthy
• Some whānau report making changes to their food at home and being more physically active