School Canteens Does Your School Have One What Type Of Food Is Sold

There has been a lot of talk lately about what type of food is served in school canteens, many years ago there was a set of guidelines brought out to help school know what they should be selling.

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/5FFB6A30ECEE9321CA257BF0001DAB17/$File/Canteen-Guidelines.PDF

I remember when you could get cans of Coke at the canteen along with lollies and pies and sausage rolls and cream buns and cream horns but not anymore. When I was at school I would order a sausage roll and a cream bun from the canteen for lunch. I would only order my lunch once a fortnight and loved it and I rarely had money to spend at the canteen on other stuff.

I was reading in the paper the other day that certain professionals want to over haul the above guidelines because they feel there is still to much sugary foods sold and too much flavoured milk sold.

Yes I know that it is better if a child doesn't have a lot of sugar in their diet and they shouldn't be having high fat foods like pies and sausage rolls but I also feel that there is no problem with these foods as long as they are not everyday foods.

You also can't send anything to school that contains, nuts, egg, sesame seeds or muesli now I get that there are children with allergies and a school should be careful when it comes to young children who may not always think about what they are eating. However, once the child gets into high school they should know what they can and cannot eat or drink, so there should be no need for such restrictions in high school.

Sometimes I think the so called experts are taking the fun out of being a child, they say if a child has a poor diet they will grow up to have a poor diet. I get that but parents have to take responsibility for their child s diet a parent should be controlling what a child eats when they are at home, when the child is at school you can't your child might decide to swap their apple for a packet of chips their friend has.

I know Leo will often not eat his sandwich but he often will eat his fruit which is good, when I pack his lunch he gets a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a couple of sweet biscuits often the only thing eaten is the fruit.

What is it like where you are, do you pack your child's school lunch, do they buy it at the canteen, do you have canteens? I am interested in what it is like in other parts of the country/world.