Better packed lunches for Manchester's children

Citation

(2000), "Better packed lunches for Manchester's children", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 30 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2000.01730eab.001

Better packed lunches for Manchester's children

Better packed lunches for Manchester's children

Staff at the Mancunian Community Health NHS trust have develped a new initative which aims to improve children's health. They have developed a series of laminated posters which show parents what they can do to make their children's packed lunches more nutritious at a cost effective price. Before the campaign many of the children's packed lunches contained fizzy drinks, crisps and chocolate bars. Now parents are being advised to give their children more fruit and vegetables and more healthy sandwich fillings. The trust was aware that buying healthy foods can be expensive so they have tried to keep the price down as far as possible. The cost of the healthy lunchbox is no more than one pound which is the average price of a school dinner. The results show the scheme has been successful with two out of every three families targeted saying that they regularly use at least one of the recommendations from the poster and over a half of parents saying they have made changes to their child's packed lunch. The Mancunian's Health Promotion Service has funded further production of the poster to reach every primary school child who has a packed lunch in every school in Manchester.