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A muesli bar ‘graveyard’. Image: Monash University
Lunchboxes unpacked
Children’s health researchers ask: What’s in the box?
By Loren Smith
R
ecently, the ABC published an investigation of lunchbox
contents in the wealthier and poorer Melbourne suburbs.
While, by comparing Oreos packed in Broadmeadows to
carrot sticks lovingly placed in Brighton, it invited food-shaming, a
new Monash University exhibition is judgement-neutral.
Schooling Food features the humble receptacle through the eyes
and stomachs of parents, schools and children, both online and in
person.
It isn’t all visual treats, however; it is a representation of the
output of Children as Health Advocates in Families: Assessing the
Consequences – an ARC-funded study led by Monash researchers,
in collaboration with others from the University of Wollongong and
the University of Melbourne.
“Our research study equipped children with iPads to help us
understand what they learned about food at school and their
experiences of food at home. We also explored whether they
shared school food messages and ideas with their families,” the
researchers explained.
Their ultimate goal? To enhance public health policy, including
education about obesity prevention.
FOOD AT HOME
“I would pack a sandwich or a bread roll, a piece of fruit, and a
treat … a muffin or a cake that I’ve made … There have been days
when I say, “That’s all I’ve got tonight” … I think we’ve all got
anxiety about Tuesday lunchboxes around here. I’m in a double
career household. The last thing you want to do at 8.30 on a
Monday night is go down to the shops. Another issue is how
much money is wasted on containers.” – Mother 1
“By Grade 5, she said: ‘I just can’t eat another cheese and lettuce
sandwich.’ I thought, wow, it took that long!” – Mother 2
“Her best friend has been bullied for being fat … from Grade 3
or possibly earlier … It’s a real insult and … she’s certainly really
aware of that.” – Mother 1
The complexities of packing school lunches are known to most
parents, but now they’ve been recorded and empirically assessed.
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Aside from parental time constraints, guilt and the
consequences of packing too many sweets, the researchers learnt
that a lunchbox’s contents can also reveal emotions. “Parents
show love through lunchboxes providing surprises and treats,”
they said.
Parent study participants demonstrated this. “You cannot have all
or nothing. It’s okay to have chocolate and lollies – it’s about how
much of the diet they’re making up,” one said.
“My kids attend a Steiner school. They believe that it’s good to
have cake for morning tea. Maybe it’s a Germanic thing? They say
that giving kids sugar brings sunshine in. I really have faith in that,”
said another.
FOOD AT SCHOOL
Unlike “wild trout caught on a trip to the Tasmanian highlands”
(a dinner described by one father) children found food at school
largely boring.
“We discovered that lessons about food were sporadic, and
children found them unmemorable,” the researchers said.
They also uncovered a lacuna between nutritious classroom
messaging and junk-food-laden fundraising events. While
popular school programs like Nude Food encourage kids to
eat unprocessed food and to minimise waste, school charity
activities often involved the selling of food like pies and
sausage rolls.
But Nude Food, too, has an unhealthy side.
“We met Emily, age six, who attends a Nude Food school,” the
researchers said. “When Emily was in prep, her mother packed a
wrapped muesli bar in her lunchbox. Emily realised her mother’s
mistake as soon as she opened her lunchbox.
“Terrified that she’d be told off, she ran outside and buried the
offending muesli bar in the school garden.”
The researchers added that they had heard several other similar
stories.
This illustrates a key project finding: schools may have the best
of intentions, but inconsistencies in their nutrition guidelines,
policies and practices “confused children and parents”, the
researchers said.
“Many families we spoke to expressed uncertainty about which
guidelines to follow.”
With advances in nutrition comes greater opportunities for food
shaming. To this end, the researchers hope for schools to be part
of the solution, not the problem. ■