‎How can schools build a positive and healthy eating environment at school? 

Food culture and food systems are complex. Find out how we can support children to eat well and nurture a healthy relationship with food in the school setting and beyond:

Supporting Healthy Eating at School: What we Say and do Matters (30 min webinar plus 20 min Q&A)

9:36 What is healthy eating at school?
18:23 Opportunities in the school setting
22:43 Resources and tools to support healthy eating at school
30:05 Summary and Q&A

Help kids eat, play and learn better 

Consider Play First Lunch Model

Applying the Play First Lunch Model‎ (2 min video, Global News)

More tips:

• Create pleasant and safe eating areas

• Offer adequate time for a sit-down snack and lunch

• If using rewards, choose non-food rewards

• Refer to the Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC to support schools with role modeling healthy eating in the classroom, in fundraisers, and at special events.

Food Program Ideas

Offer breakfast program with support from Breakfast Club Canada

Offer after-school kid’s cooking programs

Food Sales

Tips and recipes for meals and bake sales

Tips for vending machines and school stores

Fundraisers

Fundraising ideas for Schools

Sign up for Fresh to You Fundraiser

Special Events

Tips for Celebrations

Snack & Beverage ideas for Sporting events

Allergies

Resource guide for allergy aware schools

Grants

Healthy school grant opportunities

Refer to these general tips about how to nurture healthy eaters at school.

‎Consider the following questions around building food literacy at your school:

• How can we provide students with hands-on food experiences, rather than a focus on nutrition information?

• What links can be made with activities in the classroom, garden, kitchen or community?

• How can we create a supportive environment by improving access to healthy foods at school?

• In what ways can we honour the social, traditional and cultural values of harvesting, preparing, and eating food?

• What opportunities exist to partner with local farmers, food distributors, or community members to bring local and indigenous food and knowledge into our school?

Food Literacy at School: Tools and Examples

• Connect with Farm to School to engage students with food at your school. See The BC Farm to School Guide or this local Farm to School example (5 min video).
  

• Connect students with Elders to learn about harvesting, preparing, and preserving traditional foods or consider creating your own traditional foods toolkit.

• Sign up for the BC School Fruit and Vegetable or + Milk Program to get local fruit, vegetables and milk delivered to your school.

• Start a school food garden.  Or start small, and grow a potato tub garden.
  

• Learn about the local photovoice research project, in which youth experienced improvement in some aspect of their mental well-being as a resilt of their hands-on food and gardening experience at school.
  

• Learn about healthy school grant opportunities
  

‎Key messages for educators for teaching food & nutrition

Teaching about food and nutrition is another aspect of food literacy. It is helpful to consider in advance strategies for addressing topics that may arise when teaching healthy eating that need to be handled with sensitivity. 

Using the 2019 Canada's food guide 

•  Find tips on how to apply eight popular topics relating to the 2019 Canada's food guide in Top Questions about Canada's Food Guide in the school setting.
  

The following are some key messages and tips:

• Focus education around food and nutrition on experiences that allow students to explore a variety of foods and build their comfort with choosing, growing and preparing foods. These experiences help children apply the messages from the new Canada's Food Guide.
  

• Teach children to explore internal cues of hunger, fullness, and satiety (e.g. what does your tummy say?), as opposed to external cues (e.g. eat half a plate of vegetables and fruit), when deciding how much to eat.

• Teach children how to spot nutrition fads and find good sources for nutrition advice.

• Role model talking about food in a neutral, non-judgemental manner. 
  

Tips on being a healthy role model in the classroom include: 

• Modeling healthy eating behaviours (e.g. bring in lunches/snacks prepared at home that reflect comfort with a variety of foods).
  

• Speaking positively about food and eating habits without expressing personal food preferences.
  

• Dispelling assumptions based on stereotypes (e.g., thin students eat healthy, overweight students do not).
  

• Consider that growing children have different nutritional needs (including requirements for calories, calcium and dietary fat), compared to adults.
  

• Include weight and size discrimination when talking about bullying.  
  

• Find out what to do if you suspect a student is struggling with disordered eating or an eating disorder.
  

Tips for discussing societal norms around our bodies include:

• Emphasize that students can be healthy at a variety of body sizes and shapes (e.g., display images and use resources that show individuals with different body types).  Students who feel positive about their bodies find it easier to make decisions that promote good health. 

• Avoid making assumptions that an underweight or overweight student is not eating healthy food and requires an intervention or that an average weight child is necessarily eating healthy food. 

• Focus on health rather than weight, acknowledging that natural body development includes increases in weight and body fat. 

• Watch for, discuss and address issues related to weight-based teasing/bullying or weight bias. 

• Focus on teaching decision-making skills that can optimize healthy behaviours (e.g., media literacy, challenging peer norms about weight and shape, stress management). 
  

Other tips for teaching food and nutrition:

• Consider curriculum links with school nutrition programs such as Farm to School BC, or take a trip to a local farm, forest, or shore.
  

• Connect students with an Elder through your school district’s Indigenous Education team or with a farmer to learn about growing, harvesting, and preparing local or traditional foods.
  

• Recognize inequities in our society and explore poverty reduction strategies with students.
  

• Consider all the above strategies to encourage children to feel positive about eating and develop skills to enjoy a variety of foods. Refrain from classifying foods as “healthy” and “unhealthy”, learning about food labelling, and nutrients (calories, fat, vitamins, etc.) as it can produce the opposite effect and encourage black-and-white thinking.
  

Lessons Ideas

Through experiential learning around food, students will be able to make meaningful connections between cooking, growing and enjoy eating a variety of food together to support life-long healthy eating habits. The following lessonplans align with the 2019 Canada's Food guide.

‎Exploring Food

• Mystery food activity (K to 7)
  

• FANLIT food skills lesson plans (K to 5)
  

• Yogurt Sundaes (K to 12)

• Talking About Taste (K to 12)
  

• Mindfulness in the Garden (K to 12)

• Apple tasting (Grades 2 to 12)

• Mindful eating (Grades 4 to 12)

• Breakfast Basics (Grades 4 to 12) 

• Meals then and Now (Grades 4 to 7, also available in French)

• Worldly Restaurant (Grades 4 to 7)
  

• Food guide digital scavenger hunt (Grades 6 to 12)
  

• Northern Health 2019 Food Guide display (Grade 8 to 12)
  

• If you would like an emailed copy of the display panels for printing, please contact Nicole.spencer@vch.ca for the digital files
  

Poverty Awareness and Reduction

• Share the Weight: An Upstream Alternative (or supplement) to your Food Bank Drive (9 to 12)

• Justice Not Charity (9 to 12) 

• The Upstream Story (9 to 12)
  

• Justice Not Charity (9 to 12)
  

• The Price is Wrong (9 to 12)
  

Additional Resources

• Kitchen equipment ideas for the classroom 
  

• Sign up for a free teacher nutrition education workshop at your school with a registered dietitian from the BC Dairy Association. Check out this two-minute video to learn more
  

• Learn about healthy school grant opportunities
  

How to feed school-aged children and youth

• Adults decide what foods to offer, and when and where to serve meals and snacks.

• Kids decide how much to eat, and which foods to choose from what is provided.

• Involve kids in growing, selecting and preparing foods so that they can build their food skills.
  

`For more information see handouts: 

• Sharing Food, Sharing Fun— learn about cooking and eating together
  

• Positive Mealtimes— short booklet with tools for eating with young children 
  

• Feeding with Love and Good Sense: 6 through 13 years— booklet with tools for feeding 

• Feeding with Love and Good Sense: 12 through 18 years— booklet with tools for feeding 

Additional resources

• Ellyn Satter Institute— Internationally recognized eating & feeding specialists for kids & adults

• Healthy Eating for parents and caregivers— Canada’s food guide

Articles

• The Joy of Eating
  

• Get your kids in the kitchen

• How to start an indoor kitchen garden

• The New Food Guide: How We Eat Matters
  

• Is Dairy in the New Food Guide? 

• Is Sugar Unhealthy for Children?
  

• Halloween Treats: How much is OK for Kids?
  

What to feed school-aged children and youth

Offer children and youth a variety of foods. As they see foods over and over again, they will build their comfort with a wider range of foods. Involving them in some of the meal planning, shopping, and cooking can also increase their ability to eat well and make mealtimes more pleasant in the long run.

For more information see: 

Clients looking for nutrition assessment and support from a registered dietitian can:

• Call Dietitian Services at HealthLink BC by dialing 8-1-1 
  

Contact public health dietitian for schools

Public health dietitians work with public health staff, schools, and community partners to promote healthy eating environments in the school setting. Contact your local VCH community health centre to connect with a public health dietitian.