Canteens, Healthy Eating and Other Food Services

Resources

Curriculum activities

Information and resources on healthy eating and physical activity are available from:

• Better Health Channel
• FUSE — resources for learning and teaching aligned to the Victorian Curriculum

School Confectionery Guidelines

Confectionery can be defined as:

• a small snack, chocolate, or lolly — often sized for individual consumption
• of minimal nutritional value and
• with sugar as a main ingredient

Common names for confectionery include lollies, candy or sweets.

Confectionery comes in a variety of shapes, textures from jelly-like, soft and chewy to hard and brittle.

Refer to: Examples of Foods Considered to be Confectionery (PDF)

The School Confectionary Guidelines were released in October 2006, and included advice on the healthy eating principles, food selection, food categories, and food safety. For further information, refer to:

• Rationale for the Introduction of the School Confectionery Guidelines (PDF) for a review of the literature undertaken to inform the development of the Guidelines
• Implementing the School Confectionery Guidelines (PDF) for guidance including tips and answers to frequently asked questions

Note: The Go for your life Healthy Canteens campaign to which the Guidelines refer is no longer active.

Healthy Eating Advisory Service

The Healthy Eating Advisory Service:

• offers free
  • information and resources
  • menu assessment, and
  • training on how to supply and promote healthy foods and drinks in-line with the Department’s Healthy Eating policy
• provides a range of services and resources including:
  • Food and drink ideas — for ingredient swaps and cooking tips
  • FoodChecker — a free online menu, product and recipe assessment tool
  • Training for schools — a free 1-hour self-paced training module
  • Recipes for Everyday — Select Carefully category foods
• a range of fact sheets including:
  • a school community survey — with sample questions to invite students, staff, volunteers and families to provide their feedback and ideas relating to the school food service(s)
  • strategies to support a whole-school approach to healthy eating — practical actions that school leaders, staff, food services, students, families and community groups can perform to support a whole-school approach to healthy eating
  • newsletter insert ideas — a range of topics and selected resources for schools to use when drafting newsletter inserts
  • healthy school celebrations — a range of food and non-food ideas to celebrate classroom birthday parties and other special events in fun and healthy ways
  • healthy fundraising ideas — a range of food and non-food ideas to raise funds for the school, while encouraging and supporting a healthy lifestyle

Victorian Healthy Eating Enterprise

The Department is working closely with the Department of Health and other partners to promote a vibrant healthy eating culture across Victoria, and to early childhood services and schools through the Victorian Healthy Eating Enterprise (VHEE).

The VHEE encompasses a range of initiatives and aims to:

• improve consumption of fruit and vegetables
• reduce consumption of energy dense and nutrient poor food and drinks
• reduce consumption of salt and saturated/trans fats
• improve breastfeeding rates and maternal and infant nutrition
• increase the proportion of children and adults in the healthy weight range
• promote enjoyment of healthy foods

National Healthy School Canteens Guidelines (NHSCG)

The National Healthy School Canteens Guidelines (NHSCG) was developed by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing.

The School Canteens and Other School Food Services Policy was developed by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. While the NHSCG are not mandatory for Victorian government schools and agencies working with school food service providers, schools should:

• provide healthy food choices and promote key health food messages to students that align with the Federal Department of Health and Ageing’s National Healthy School Canteens Project Guidelines
• consider available resources — such as recipes, to assist in the implementation of the Department’s Healthy Eating policy