All ACT public schools will soon have canteens serving healthy food, after Greens MLA Johnathan Davis’s motion unanimously passed the Legislative Assembly yesterday.
One-third of students’ daily energy intake is consumed at schools, which can total up to 2,400 lunches over 12 years of schooling – but 31 ACT public schools do not have canteens, 42 per cent of which are in Mr Davis’s electorate of Brindabella. The MLA does not think this is good enough.
“I don’t want any parent or career to feel overwhelmed by the stress of feeding their children or risk them being hungry because their school doesn’t have a canteen…” Mr Davis said.
“No child should go hungry. No parent or carer should have to worry about their ability, or their school’s ability, to provide healthy meals to their children. And no canteen service should have to sacrifice prioritising healthy food options for children.”
Mr Davis’s motion called on the ACT Government to conduct an audit of the kitchen and canteen facilities at every ACT public school; to enshrine an agreed standard for school canteen facilities, upgrading infrastructure where necessary; to implement a policy that would provide every public school with an operational canteen; and to reinstate free annual menu assessments for canteens by next year.
“While I want to strive for a vision where every student is provided nutritionally balanced meals in school, at a bare minimum every school must have a good quality canteen that offers affordable, healthy foods for students,” Mr Davis said. “Unfortunately, that is not the case currently…
“Schools are left to their own devices to manage their budgets and what they prioritise, and the ACT Government does not provide any financial support to help schools or local communities establish or operate canteens,” Mr Davis said.
That means, he said, schools either pay for canteen operations and staff, or rely on local P&C groups to run canteens, which need fundraisers to be financially sustainable, and many struggle to be profitable.
Education minister Yvette Berry said the government would work with school communities, the ACT P&C Council, the ACT Principals’ Association, and unions to understand the difficulties faced in sustaining a viable school canteen, and respond to their concerns.
Canteens must also serve healthy food, Mr Davis insisted.
“Nutritious, high-quality food provides for good physical and mental health, a clean environment, and sustainable communities. Education is inseparable from these goals in being critical to good health, while conversely, childhood health and nutrition are key determinants of education outcomes. Poor health and malnutrition often intersect with other factors that influence access to education, such as poverty and food insecurity.”
Although public school canteen menus are expected to comply with the ACT Public School Food and Drink Policy and a national nutrition content traffic light system (‘green’ for healthy, ‘amber’ for lower nutritional content, ‘red’ for no), healthy food can be 30 per cent more expensive than processed fast food and pre-cooked food.
Moreover, the ACT Government has not provided free annual meal assessments promised in the Policy since 2021.
This year’s Budget, however, reinstated funding of $418,000 over four years so school canteens could access independent annual menu reassessments for free.
“It shouldn’t be up to individual school canteens, which often are run by volunteers, and often don’t even make a profit, to find the money to fund these menu assessments themselves,” Ms Berry said.
The ACT Government is piloting a $1.5 million free school meal program in five schools: Gilmore Primary School, Richardson Primary School, Narrabundah Early Childhood School, Gold Creek School (high school campus), and Melba Copland Secondary School. Mr Davis hopes this program will be expanded to all public schools one day.
