Healthier options taking over tuck shops

Dunedin school tuck shops are still selling pies, but these days the children are more likely to be eating a healthy chicken and vegetable pie than the traditional steak and cheese.

After the Heart Foundation won the Ministry of Health contract to provide nutritional information to schools in 2011, it launched the Fuelled4Life programme.

Since Fuelled4Life started, 39 out of the 73 schools in Dunedin have signed up - seven high schools, three intermediates and 29 primary schools.

Registered schools were sent a tuck shop buyers' guide, which recommends various food products for their nutritional value and low fat content.

Dunedin North Intermediate canteen manager Daphne Glover said the school canteen was in a transitional period. It would be able to offer only Fuelled4Life-approved food by the end of the first term.

As it stood, the canteen sold 15 items, most of which were approved by the guide. Pies were still on the menu but these were low-fat pies with the Heart Foundation tick. Nothing was deep fried and excess oils were avoided.

The transition to healthy foods had not been very expensive as most of the food sold at the canteen was made at the school, Mrs Glover said. Eventually, the canteen would only sell food cooked at the school.

Food technologist Nathanja Gingerich said food technology class recipes that had proved popular with pupils had already been added to the canteen menu.

Green Island School principal Steve Haywood said his school had adopted policies aimed at keeping its pupils healthy, although teachers were not intended to be ''the food police''.

The school had no canteen but pupils could order in food from an outside provider. Pies could only be ordered on Fridays.

The school had also been a ''water-only'' school for 10 years, fizzy drink being allowed only on special occasions.

Green Island was a mid-decile school so it was not eligible for the fruit-in-schools programme. It had signed up for Fonterra's milk-in-schools programme.

Aurora Cafe provides tuck shop services to four Mosgiel schools without their own canteens.

All 17 items on the cafe's menu are approved by the Fuelled4Life buyers' guide.

The cheapest item is a piece of fruit for $1 while the most expensive is sushi or a wrap costing $4.

''We keep it to child-size portions to make it as cheap for them as possible,'' Aurora Cafe owner Jillian Peacock said.

Heart Foundation food and beverage classification systems manager Sally Hughes said the Heart Foundation was working hard to sign up all of Dunedin's schools.

''The evidence shows children who are poorly nourished have fewer learning opportunities,'' she said.

According to the foundation, one-third of children aged from 2 to 14 years are overweight, which increased their chance of contracting type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease and common cancers and was a major risk factor in strokes.

Ms Hughes acknowledged affordability of food was a huge issue for schools and parents but said smart shopping and buying in bulk could make healthy food a viable option.

''It's a misconception that healthy food is more expensive,'' she said.

''Takeaways are also expensive. Making a hamburger at home is a lot cheaper than buying it at [a takeaway shop].''

- Jonathan Chilton-Towle