Canteen rules & regulations..anyone in the know? (bit of a vent here)

[*Efjay*]

Well I went along to P&C tonight & along with the readers.. the issue of canteen was raised.
Currently our canteen supplies jelly cups, milkyways & these sunface fruit lollies & snakes (Just to name a few things on the "red" list). Now a friend has taken over the role of canteen head honcho & wants to remove these items from canteen. Well everyone bar me pretty much LOL disagrees with her. It was brought up tonight & we got shot down in a big fire ball of flames. It wasn't pretty.
so before I get into the vent part of my post.. Does anyone know if the Fresh Tastes NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy is either just a guide line to be taken on board & adjusted to suit the school or its a MUST FOLLOW & OBEY hard & fast no ifs, or buts about it?
Reason I ask is the argument was the fresh tastes guidelines state that all red foods (lollies etc) must be limited to sale in canteens. By this they mean limited to TWO days a term.
Now the bulk of everyone there tonight said that because our canteen is only open 2 days a week it doesn't matter, its a treat. But to me it doesn't matter the regulations state TWO days a term not 2 days a week.

So who is right? Us or them?

Ok, now for the vent. I knew I was in for a showdown. But OMG. Seriously these women have control issues. I made a (yes smart arse) comment about jumping on an idea as it will make a profit. It was suggested that the students have a vegie patch. one that they can use to learn about what they grow & then take pride in that they are supplying these fresh grown produce in the canteen. Well this was apparently a stupid, time consuming idea. Then someone else said how they heard about these types of things being government funded to set up. So I said "they you go, profit to be made lets jump on it" . Yes it was a smart arse comment but really its true, it will cost nothing to set up if the gov fund it to set up & then we will maek money off selling the items in canteen. well one lady pulled me up on it big time, she spoke over everyone else directing all attention to me & went on at me about P&C not being the place for snide remarks I am going to say inthe corner blah blah blah. So I piped up & said fine, if you let me finish then I will say it for all to hear. The whole evening so far has been discussing profit, its all about making profit, so here we are its funded to set up so it will be profit that comes from it. So lets jump on it. she cut me off again & spent the rest of the night giving me the look of death. Along with her side kick that I apparently offend a few weeks back when I said P&C was hard to join as there is there clicky little group. well that didn't go down well either. But tonight just rang in the tune of click click click! LOL


soooo anyway if someone can give me some facts to rub in their faces about canteen that would be great

[Patooties]

First up, I have to say sorry, I don't know anything about the regs, but good on you for standing up to those 'bullies'. I personally felt tightness in my chest reading what you had to put up with. You might have to get some of your friends on board to go to the meetings with you for some extra support.
Good luck with everything , I hope you can stick it tothem

[mumofmany]

Hey.. up in QLD it is policy. I've just done a google search on the NSW DET, and it appears that the "Fresh Tastes NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy" is "the policy sets out requirements associated with a government-endorsed approach that assists schools to determine nutritional and healthier types of foods for sale in their canteens."

So it is policy as per the department of ed.

It states that this policy is applicable to "All DET staff and operations; Schools; TAFE; Parents/Guardians/Caregivers; The Public; Associated with Industry"

Go to..

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/...being%7CHealth

the stuck up b@t$h#s have to follow it!!

[Beatrix]

actually in regards to policy it is not law..

so legally no they dont have to suck it up and follow it, anything policy related can not be forced upon someone

But yes policy should be followed to be consistant

[*Efjay*]

actually in regards to policy it is not law..

so legally no they dont have to suck it up and follow it, anything policy related can not be forced upon someone

But yes policy should be followed to be consistant

see this is what they were saying (sort of) but I kept coming across this

It is mandatory for all NSW Government schools (from Term 1, 2005)

so to me that sounds like its more then just a police.. am I right?

[Indadhanu]

In QLD its pretty much seen as law, even though I don't think they can actually ambush a school and host a seige of offending food LOL. It's just HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as far as I know. Most schools will take it in because its just good policy really (except some bits which I'll leave out of this post... ok no I won't... skim milk? For Kids? Is OTT to me... I think thats where it goes too far IMO... anyway LOL).

Good on you for standing up to those *****es. P&C meetings can get so catty, my mum was part of one and she'd always come home with tales to tell, sounded like a bloody high school drama group to me!

[{sarah}]

Fiona I work for a school canteen supplier so we have to be pretty up there with the regulations.

It is mandatory & the school can be fined if they are audited by the School Canteen Association. I'm not sure what the fine is & in all the time I've worked with the guidelines none of our 150+ schools that we supply have been fined.

There are three categories of foods, using a traffic ligt system - red, amber and green. Red foods are only allowed to be supplied once a term, so schools can have a special say "pie day" once in a term but not sell pies for the rest of the term. Amber foods are alowed to be eaten once per week, some schools will only sell them on one day but smaller schools that the canteen ladies know all the kids can just make sure that eac child only buys the food one day IYKWIM. Green foods can be eten daily. You can find the guidelines & a calculator on the NSW School Canteen Assoc website.

The school can get a Buyer's Guide sent out once a term (I'm not sure if all schools automatically get it or if you have to register) and it has a listing of all the approved products. This is where we have a bit of a problem. The companies have to pay to get their products into the magazine, so if a company can't afford it then their product doesn't go in. So for example I think there are only two brands of water in the Buyer Guide, obviously any plain water is ok for kids though. This is where the calculator comes in, you put in the sodium, fat etc from the nutritional panel & it will tell you what category it's in.

Now even though it's mandatory, some schools don't follow it. We still have A LOT of schools that order frozen chips & oil and sell them every day. There are soooo many products now that companies have modified to bring them into line as well which makes it so much easier. Depending on the brand of Jelly Cups at the canteen at the moment, they may be ok. Most of the time it's just a matter of switching brands, this brand of chicken nuggets has too much salt, so swap over to that brand. It is a bit of work to get it started, but the canteen supplier should be well versed in the recommendations & be able to help them work out what products to change.