Programs and Services Offered - Elementary Schools

In Homes and the Community

When working with parents and community organizations to improve school nutrition, use the following two recommendations to help you make the healthy choice the easy choice for students.

1. Provide Parent, Student and Community Education About Healthy Eating

Involving parents in nutrition-related learning experience such as parent workshops, games, take-home activities and school meals can enhance and change the eating behaviours of both students and parents. Nutrition Services offers:

• Parent Workshops
  • What's in your Child's Lunch Bag?
  • Creating a Healthy School Nutrition Environment: Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice

• 4 for Lunch: A Healthy Lunch Challenge is offered once a year in the fall to grade 2 students. The goal is to encourage families to pack nutritious lunches. Nutrition materials, including curriculum-matched activities are provided. The challenge is for students and their parents to plan and make healthy lunches for one week.

• Nutrition Matters fact sheets and Canada's Food Guide materials are available for families. Cultural adaptations of Canada's Food Guide are also available on the website

• Cooking up some fun! is a booklet for parents and caregivers of children three to twelve years of age. It includes helpful tips for meal planning, simple meal ideas and recipes which will help you and you family develop healthy eating habits

• You're the Chef is a vegetable and fruit promotion program that uses basic cooking lessons to help grade 6, 7, and 8 students establish better eating habits

• The elementary school Parent School Newsletter Inserts provide parents with up-to-date information on various health topics including nutrition

2. Develop Community Partnerships

To create a healthy school nutrition environment, it is important for schools to partner with community organizations. One way of partnering is to share the Nutrition Tools for Schoolsİ Nutrition Standards and other resources with local food service providers who support your pizza day and other catered lunch days. These resources will help your partners identify healthy food and beverages to sell and offer in school and comply with the Ontario Ministry of Education's School Food and Beverage Policy (P/PM 150) Nutrition Standards.

If your school is interested in creating a healthy nutrition environment, public health staff will work with you and provide a copy of Nutrition Tools for Schoolsİ. For more information about this toolkit or to become involved, please call 1-800-735-6625 ext. 4332 or ext. 4335.