A ST ALBANS primary school is paving the way for a healthy lifestyle for its students.
St Albans Heights Primary School has only healthy foods in its school canteen and is right behind the National Ride to School day this Wednesday.
However, Assistant principal Jenny Harris encouraged her students to walk instead of ride for safety reasons.
“The streets aren’t really safe.
“There’s lots of traffic and the streets are little.
“So we organise drop-off points for students to walk to school with parents,” she said.
The school conducted monthly walks to help instil the healthy message and was strong advocate of healthy eating as part of the Go For Your Life initiative, she said.
Ms Harris said the school had endorsed a “green canteen” with no chocolate bars, chips, soft drink, cakes or pastries.
Under the school’s canteen model, foods labelled green could be eaten on a daily basis, amber labelled foods occasionally and red foods could be eaten once a term.
The school did not sell any red labelled foods.
Items on the canteen list included fruit salad, toasted muffins with light cheese, jelly with fruit and wholemeal sandwiches. Instead of meat pies, dim sims and sausage rolls, the school’s lunch menu comprised items such as chicken and corn soup and fried rice.
“We have got a veggie garden and we use some of the produce in the sandwiches,” Ms Harris said.
“Unless we keep instilling the healthy and active message we’re not really going to get anywhere.”
– Cimara Pearce
