Who said eating healthy couldn’t be fun?
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The canteen staff at Griffith High School have joined forces with dietitian Jessica Ammendolia to provide the school with quality, fresh food, and make the transition happen to health food, with a focus on fresh menus, fresh ideas and fresh food.
It comes under the NSW Government’s Healthy School Canteen Strategy, which stipulates all state schools have to be compliant by the end of 2018 to make sure children get the nutrition they need.
The team have made the whole progress integrate with every aspect of the school and wider Griffith community, with local growers donating produce, businesses supplying supplies, as well as heavy student involvement in growing food, recipe making, photos and advertising.
What we are doing isn’t rocket science, there is no magic fairy dust that’s added, it’s just real food served well.
- Canteen manager Linda Watson.
Canteen manager Linda Watson said the Griffith community have really come on board.
“We are getting deliveries from local suppliers, local fruit and veggie suppliers, butchers, all those kind of guys are on board to make sure the highest quality is what we are delivering,” Ms Watson said.
“Parents know that when they send their kids off with money to get food from the canteen, they are going to get their meat and veg for the day, so if mum or dad don’t have the time or money at home to get a good dinner at home it gives them peace of mind.”
What makes their initiative different, is they have incorporated students in Photography, Agriculture, English, as well as others to create a collaborative school project, really putting their own spin on the Government initiative.
“It really gives the students a sense of ownership in their involvement,” Ms Ammendolia said.
But best of all, the kids love it all, smashing the imagined ideal kids don’t like healthy food.
The canteen team have noticed now the healthy food is going quicker than the pies, and with meals like risotto, pulled pork rolls with coleslaw, taco filled potato skins, stir fry and rice paper rolls, it’s not hard to see why.
“Teachers are coming back to us with great feedback as well, so example after lunch the kids would come back on a massive sugar high, and are now coming back more engaged and settled,” Ms Watson said.
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“At the start the canteen team made over 800 different samples of food, and we went into classrooms with them to see what the students liked: some were hated and some were loved, and we came back as a team and worked with what they’ve given us.”
And taste testing was just the beginning, with the food technology students developing their recipes, and Agricultural students growing produce in a staggered garden all year round, meaning the menu will be very seasonal.
The photography students will be doing photo shoots for Instagram photos, where the canteen team will cook up a whole heap of foods to do shoots with.
“The English staff were kind enough to do our taste-testing surveys, and one of the other classes are doing our advertising, so it’s a little bit of everything,” Ms Watson said.
“We have competitions running, so with our food tech students, whoever’s recipe gets selected they will actually come into the canteen and get to name it, the minority groups are going to come in and teach us how to make cultural foods for a variety of options. We have liaised with every single group you can imagine,” Ms Ammendolia said.