You are what you eat: A deep dive into Unihigh’s canteen.
BY EMELIE ANG
If a typical student is ready to battle the long lines of the canteen at Uni High, they’ll be greeted with a solid menu of lunch choices. There are some lighter options if they’re looking for a quick snack, like a dim sim or two, or maybe, for something heavier, an infamous chicken sandwich, Uni High style. The big question is, however, are either of those options or any of the other items sold at the canteen enough to last a school day for a typical high school student, and to ensure they meet the nutritional requirements of adolescents?
Food is a basic human need and contributes hugely to mental and physical well-being. Nutritious food contributes to the well-being, growth, and development of young kinds. During childhood and adolescence, malnutrition can cause kids to have lesser engagement and interest during learning, which negatively affects their cognitive development and academic performance. It also affects physical growth and maturation. A New South Wales study conducted by the Health Eating Advisory Service found that 72% of primary school students consumed an item from their school canteen at least once a week. With many people getting their first jobs in high school, Uni High students are more likely to purchase an item from the canteen than a student in primary school.
Every day, all around the world, many kids find themselves in a position where they are incapable of focusing and taking in information during class, the majority of which is due to a lack of proper nutrition. At Uni High, as part of the Year 9 History and Geography, students are taught about malnutrition and its impact on people around the world, especially growing children. Again in PE and Health, students have been taught about healthy eating and teachers have stressed the importance of proper nutrition. So it’s safe to assume, most people know what healthy eating and the effects of malnutrition are like.
It is apparent at Uni High that many staff and students turn to the canteen to get their food, with long lines snaking through the canteen on an average day. So more than ever, the canteen’s importance and the role it plays in how the school functions comes to light.
According to Education Victoria, schools, from primary to secondary, should support a healthy eating culture, by developing healthy food services, and promoting healthy eating principles.
As stated by the website, the enjoyment of healthy foods can impact students in the following ways:
1. Provides nutrients necessary for alert function in classrooms.
2. Supporting the development of healthy eating habits.
3. Paving the way to good health and prevention of chronic illnesses.
A healthy food service must also meet the criteria below:
1. Make it easy for students to purchase healthy snacks and meals.
2. Offer a variety of nutritious foods
3. Promotes foods that are consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
4. Involves students, parents, and the school community.
5. Integral part of the entire healthy school environment.
As part of this investigation, a survey was put out to the students and teachers of Unihigh, for their opinions, as the consumers of the canteens, and their views on the nutritional value of the items sold. It was found that on a scale of one to five, with five meeting all points on the first list as stated above, that 41.1% gave a three out of five.
Health and nutrition go hand in hand, but taste and cost seem to be a major focus point for students at Uni High. After conducting a survey on 96 students and teachers to gauge how much nutrition matters to students at Uni High and informing them of the above information, 53.3% thought cost was one of the most important things to them about the canteen. Taste followed cost at 24.4%, dwarfing nutrition at 4.4%.
From the survey, it is clear that nutrition is not as much of a priority as taste and cost. However, it is known how integral nutrition is.
According to an article published by the Government of the United Kingdom, healthy eating for adolescents should be a diet including a cut down on fatty foods, such as chips, burgers, fried foods and processed foods like instant noodles, as well as sweets, cakes, fizzy drinks and biscuits.
Taking a look at the Bocca Foods website, where students are able to log into accounts and order their food in advance, access to sandwiches, fruit salad and wraps is readily available. However, looking behind the steam-covered display cabinets at Unihigh, a plethora of burgers, suspiciously grey chicken strips in puffy white rolls and hot wedges remain stocked up to the brim. Behind, in the drinks fridge, water is sold for $4, while soft drinks are sold for $2.50, making sweet drinks seem significantly more enticing.
Many students are unaware of pre-ordering and rather just rock up on the day to secure their lunch fix, so a selection of fatty, processed and sweet treats are the majority of the options which are readily available to them. Nevertheless, the temptation is understandable, so as the demand and need for tasty, unhealthy foods streams in from students, the canteen supplies, keeping their customers happy. Many could say, there’s no better result than a smile on someone’s face.
So, is the canteen something that needs to be worried about, especially with school bathrooms a hot topic? If suddenly burgers were swapped with tuna salads, would anyone buy from the canteen? Why change anything if the student’s main concern is the cost? Shouldn’t we be tweaking things to make them taste better, regardless of nutritional value?
And the question is now, should there be a concern if the canteen isn’t meeting the nutritional needs of students at Uni High?