Survey shows junk-food school staple

green-party

Thu Apr 16 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Survey shows junk-food school staple

Thursday, 16 April 2009, 9:26 am
Press Release: Green Party

16 April 2009

The Green Party revealed today its latest survey of school food. It shows that sausage rolls, hot dogs, donuts, cookies and other sugary, fatty foods are the staple foods on offer in a majority of New Zealand schools.

The survey of 50 schools found that 84% of schools are still selling hot dogs, sausage rolls, hot bites or pies - an astonishing 14% increase since last year. 64% of schools are selling donuts, cookies or cakes, and 42% are selling chips.

Green Party MP Sue Kedgley said the results show that the School Food Guidelines dropped in February, at the whim of Education Minister Anne Tolley, need to be urgently reinstated.

"Schools are now free to sell as much junk food as they wish. Any improvement in school canteen food since the inception of the now abandoned School Food Guidelines is likely to be lost.

"Our survey shows that contrary to what Anne Tolley claims, waiting for schools to improve their menus voluntarily isn't going to work. Government leadership and direction is needed and the Nutritional Guidelines need to be urgently reinstated."

Ms Kedgley welcomed improvements in some areas - with 65% of schools now offering bottled water and 70% selling fruit. But she said it was surprising to find that the number of schools selling hot dogs, sausage rolls, hot bites or pies has actually increased by 14% over the past year.

Another surprising finding was that only 18% of schools are implementing the School Food and Beverage Guidelines, and categorising food as 'occasional', sometimes and 'everyday' food in their menus, as the guidelines stipulate.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

"I assume the reason so few schools are implementing the school food and beverage guidelines is because the Minister has removed any requirement for them to do so," said Ms Kedgley.

"Sixty percent of children buy food at school canteens, so the quality of food on offer is important.

"Most parents wouldn't feed their children a constant diet of sausage rolls, donuts and chips, so why do we allow our schools to sell this sort of food on a daily basis?"

Link to the full survey:

http://www.greens.org.nz/node/20959

Note: This is the fifth school food survey that the Green Party has conducted, based on menus from schools that are published on the internet. 50 schools were surveyed, ranging from primary to secondary, to establish what children were able to purchase for school lunches. The survey is likely to underestimate the poor quality of food on offer in schools, as it included only 7 secondary schools, and 43 primary schools - and only secondary schools have school canteens.

ENDS

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}

Using Scoop for work?

Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.

Join Pro Individual Find out more

Find more from Green Party on InfoPages.