Pack Lunch Policy

15. Pack Lunch Policy and procedure.

 Our aim

 To share information with parents around the content of a healthy packed lunch and the balance of food groups that should be provided in a packed lunch.

 To positively promote the health and wellbeing of every child. 

To support your child to foster a healthy attitude to food and work with you to ensure your child benefits from a balanced diet.

 Rationale

 To maintain healthy development and growth children need to eat a nutritionally well-balanced diet. As an Early Years setting, we are in a strong position to influence and can contribute significantly to improving the health and well-being of your child.  Good nutrition in early childhood can help to prevent a variety of health problems, both in the short term and later in life. There is increasing concern that many children are consuming too much fat, sugar and salt and too little fibre, fruit, and vegetables. Your child requires a balanced diet that includes daily intake of food groups.  carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, protein, dairy good fats that is low in sugar, salt, and excess fat. Guidelines recommend it is important not to fill up on too many foods that are high in fat and / or sugar at the expense of other more nutritious foods.  Limiting high fat and sugar foods will help protect your child from becoming overweight as well as helping prevent tooth decay, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. 

Sweets, chocolate, cereal bars, toffee/salted popcorn, squash, and fizzy drinks will not provide your child with a healthy diet and should not be included in the packed lunch, as well as other foods and drinks high in fat and / or sugar.

Responsibility of parents/carers

 To supply an appropriate packed lunch, container where food items can be stored securely. To work with the setting to ensure that packed lunches provide healthy options for your children. As fridge space is not available and parents are advised to bring packed lunches in insulated bags with freezer blocks where possible to stop the food going off during the Summer.

To ensure other children are not exposed to potential life-threatening allergens and does not pose any choking hazards to your child or any other child.

Your child’s pack lunch must not contain the following: Nuts or nut products.  Fizzy or sugary drinks. Chocolate-coated products, sweets, confectionary, Fruit winders or similar, biscuits, cakes or crisps, Sweet/ toffee and salted popcorn. Dried fruit must only be eaten at meal times and not as a snack.

Whole uncut round foods; grapes, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, and cherry tomatoes must be cut lengthways.

Sausages must be cut lengthways.

 The setting also recognises that some children may require special diets that do not allow for the standards to be met exactly.   In this case parents are urged to be responsible in ensuring that packed lunches are as healthy as possible.  For these reasons children are also not permitted to swap food items.

What can go in your child’s lunch box.

Fruit and vegetables

Fresh, frozen, canned, and dried fruit, vegetables, and pulses

At least 5 portions each day.  Provide a portion as part of each main meal (breakfast, lunch and tea) and with some snacks.

Potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates

Bread, potatoes and sweet potatoes, starchy root vegetables, pasta, noodles, rice, other grains, breakfast cereals

4 portions each day 

Provide a portion as part of each meal (breakfast, lunch and tea) and provide as part of at least one snack each day

Dairy and alternatives

Milk, cheese, yoghurt, fromage frais

3 portions each day 

Provided as part of meals, snacks and drink

Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins

Meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, beans, pulses, nuts Protein, iron, zinc, omega 3 fattyacids, vitamins A and D

 2 portions each day

Provide a portion as part of lunch and tea (two to three portions for vegetarian children)

For all foods

 • Avoid foods high in saturated fat, salt, and/or sugars like cakes, sweet and savoury pastries, biscuits, crisps, chocolate and other confectionary.

 • Avoid artificial sweeteners as they may encourage children to prefer very sweet foods

Drinks

 • Provide children with access to water throughout the day.

• Provide only fresh tap water and plain milk to drink.

• Provide whole milk, semi-skimmed cow’s milk or unsweetened calcium fortified non-dairy alternatives for children from 1 year of age.

• Avoid skimmed and 1% cow’s milk.

• Avoid sugary drinks (including fruit juices, squash and smoothies).

Traffic light food labels

 Some food labels use red, amber and green colour coding to tell you if a food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt:

• red means high

• amber means medium

• green means low.

 In general, a food or drink that has mostly greens on the label is a healthier choice. Red means the product is high in fat, saturated fat, salt or sugars, and you should avoid giving these to children and try to choose products which are low or medium in saturated fat and sugars, and low in salt. The colour coding covers a range of amounts of the particular nutrient so a food labelled as ‘medium’ for sugars can have 5g - 22.5g of sugar per 100g of the food. This means some foods in this category still contain a significant amount of sugar. To cut down on sugary foods look at the amount of sugar per 100g of the food (usually on the pack) and choose products with the lowest sugar content. As young children (under 2 years) need a higher fat diet than older children and adults, there is no need to compare foods to choose lower-fat options. You can gradually introduce lower-fat dairy options for children older than 2 years.

The NHS has further information about information about food labelling.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/how-to-read-food-labels/

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