 
|
Home > 'Go for your life' Canteen Advisory Service > Snack Attack
Snack Attack
Snacks contribute a significant proportion of a child’s food intake and make an important contribution to their high nutrient needs for growth and development. They therefore need to be nutritious and not be considered as “extras”, providing just “empty kilojoules”. The school food service has an important role in providing healthy snack options.
Fruit is the ideal healthy snack food for kids. It satisfies those cravings for something sweet while being free of added sugar and is high in fibre and vitamins. Serving chilled colourful fresh fruit, peeled or chopped up, makes it fun and easy to eat. Frozen fruit is also a popular snacks in both Summer and Winter- making in bulk (even by volunteers or students) will last you weeks.
Try these fruit snack ideas:
Individually wrap tinned pineapple rings (in natural juice) in cling wrap and freeze. Cheap, little preparation involved and they are a huge hit with primary school students – a great Everyday (green) snack. Call them UFOs for fun and download our UFO marketing flyer UFO marketing flyer (543kb, pdf)] to promote them.
Place tinned or fresh fruit in small plastic cups, cover in regular jelly and set. Great combinations include green grapes with green jelly or tinned two fruits (in natural juice) with orange jelly. Call “Jelly Jumbles” or “Frog Eyes” for the green grape combo. Jelly combined with fruit is a Select Carefully (amber) snack, however note jelly on its own is an Occasionally (red) food.
Try vegetable based snacks- they provide fibre and lots of vitamins and minerals:
Corn cobbettes make a tasty Everyday (green) warm winter snack. Choose smaller cobbettes so that you can sell them at a cheap price (e.g. 40 cents). Serving them with lemon juice is really tasty.
Make vegetable sticks more appealing by selling in a clear plastic cup with some dip such as hummus or tzatziki in the bottom.
Try some dairy snacks to build their bones healthy and strong:
Yoghurt topped with fruit coulis is very popular and can be packaged into a variety of different size containers for different appetites. Low/reduced fat yoghurt is preferable as this is an Everyday (green) choice. Mentone Park Primary School buys in bulk (e.g. 5kg bladders) to get a cheaper price and portions out yoghurt into little containers. They sell some fresh but freeze most of it – the students love eating it frozen!
Ice creams and frozen yoghurts are a great Select Carefully (amber) snack choice that offer calcium and has a marketing advantage over lunchbox fare. There are so many reduced fat ice creams varieties – refer to the buyers guides for brand suggestions.
Or try these other snacks:
Try making “Googy Faces” – shell hard boil eggs, wrap individually in glad wrap and draw a smiley face on with permanent pen. A great Everyday (green) snack. Giving them a fun name, like Googy Faces, will really help sell them!
A mix of air popped popcorn, high fibre breakfast cereal and dried fruit is a great Everyday (green) snack being high in fibre. Air-popped popcorn is best and can be highly profitable. Serve in bags or patty cases for over the counter sales. Check out the buyers guides for suitable cereal brands.
Home-baked mini muffins are delicious and have a good profit margin – a volunteer who can’t spare a full day serving may be able to come in a bake a large batch for you once a fortnight. Ensure small serving sizes, as many muffins are too large for young children. Homemade muffins made in smaller patty cake cases are generally Select Carefully (amber) if using a reduced fat, high fibre and reduced sugar recipe, e.g. added bran, or 50% white flour, 50% wholemeal flour, replace butter with oil or margarine, using mainly fruit as sweetener to reduce added sugar, e.g. tinned apple and keeping the serving size small.
Refer below for some great healthy muffin recipes:
Want further healthy snack ideas? Download the following fact sheets:
Commercial Snacks:
There are many healthy, reduced fat, reduced sodium, high fibre commercial snack products available to canteens. Types of products include muffins and biscuits, fruit pies, dairy and fruit-juice based frozen products, popcorns, savoury rice-based snacks and dried fruit bars. For specific brands of commercial snacks that are suitable for provision in school food services, refer to buyers guides (85 kb, pdf). Note that due to differences between state canteen guidelines, these buyers guides may list some frozen snack products that are not based on pure juice and are not suitable for provision under the Victorian ‘Go for your life’ School Canteen and other School Food Services Policy.
Always refer to the ‘Go for your life’ Food Planner for the most relevant advice. If in doubt phone the ‘Go for your life’ Canteens Advisory Service on 1300 73 98 99 (press 2 for canteens) to double-check.
Have you got a healthy snack idea which has been successful in your canteen? Email us to share your ideas.
Acknowledgement
|
