A lesson from the lunch box

STUART LAIDLAW, The Toronto Star
Sep. 11, 2006

Yo.u've survived the first week of school. Morning routines are still not perfect — they never will be — but things are starting to click, a little.

So maybe it's time to take things up a notch and seize the learning opportunity that exists in your children's lunches. Lunch can be a chance for kids to learn about nutrition, health, balanced diets and the importance of eating right.

It can even be an ethics lesson.

The key to teaching good nutrition, of course, is to practise good nutrition. Giving kids pre-packed lunches, soft drinks and sugary, salty snacks might be easier, but it tells kids it's okay to eat that kind of food. Bad habits are hard to break.

Of course, any effort to get kids to eat well will be balanced against the fact that you won't be there to ensure they eat the healthy meal you pack.

There are people who can help. Many schools have volunteer lunch supervisors who can ensure your children eat what you give them.

"Principals tell me they can't live without them," says Lori Nikkel, who works with schools to set up nutritional lunch programs through Toronto Partners for Student Nutrition, a joint project of Toronto Public Health and FoodShare Toronto.

FoodShare is a non-profit group working to improve access to affordable, healthy food in the city.

Nikkel's group is behind a program that put salad bars in dozens of Toronto schools, with more coming this year. She's proud of the work, but in a city with hundreds of schools, she knows there is much more to be done.

That's where lunch supervisors come in, she says. They know the children, the neighbourhoods and the ethnic and economic mix of their areas. And, with hundreds of volunteers across the city, they have a far wider reach than her salad bars.

"They are enormously important," she says.

Nikkel's group trains the volunteers on nutrition and fundraising and can help them find local suppliers. Every spring, Foodshare holds appreciation lunches for the volunteers.

"They do so much work, we thought we should thank them,'' says Nikkel.

The supervisors perform a variety of duties, depending on the schools. Some provide hot breakfast or lunch programs. Others simply watch over the children as they eat lunches brought from home. Many programs are free, while others charge a small fee.

All the programs emphasize good nutrition and healthy foods.

Parents who have a tough time getting their kids to eat at home would be surprised at the new fruits and vegetables they are willing to try at school, Nikkel says.

"Then they come home and say, `Mom, can we get some cauliflower?'"

Which is all fine and good for those lucky enough to have a breakfast or lunch program in their schools. But what about everyone else?

FoodShare does what it can to push good eating habits among all children through a travelling group of educators who go into the schools to give nutrition tips they hope the children will take home.

Susan Butler, who co-ordinates the sessions, says they are as hands-on as possible, with children creating their own vegetable dips or making wraps for everyone in their school.

"They are so proud of what they can do," she says, adding her programs teach children the joys of eating well.

Other than that, it's up to you. Both Butler and Nikkel encourage eating local food whenever possible. It's fresher and more nutritious, because it hasn't been sitting in the back of a truck making its way to Toronto.

"You can still get local pears in winter," Butler says.

As well, buying local food keeps the money in the local economy and cuts down on the environmental impact of getting food to your table. After all, fossil fuels are burned transporting food.

Trucking 3 kilograms of apples from British Columbia creates 2.241 kg of greenhouse gases, while a similar bag of apples from Ontario creates just 0.058 kg of greenhouse gas getting to the city.

With numbers like that, simply sending your kids to school with an Ontario apple can be an environment ethics lesson — and it tastes good.

For a list of in season fruits and vegetables, see http://www.food land.gov.on.ca/availability.htm.

To figure out how much greenhouse gas the food in your fridge created to get here, use the Star's online carbon counter at http://www.ghgregistries.ca/thestar/news.cfm.

Stuart Laidlaw is the Star's faith and ethics reporter.