Preschool food Fascism in Australia



Preschool teachers are inspecting lunch boxes and decreeing which ingredients are acceptable in birthday cakes in a dramatic escalation in the war against childhood obesity. Chocolate frogs, lollies, cakes and fruit roll-ups are among foods banned at some NSW preschools and kindergartens. If daily lunch-box checks reveal such foods, they are sent home uneaten. And parents who send in a cake to mark their child's birthday are being left in no doubt: small plain cakes are in, big creamy chocolate cakes are out.

The crackdown in preschools comes as junk food is being officially phased out of canteens at the state's primary schools. But some experts, including leading nutritionist Rosemary Stanton, say lunch-box inspections take the healthy eating strategies too far. "There is no direction from anyone in an official position to examine children's lunch boxes or to forbid any child to eat any food and I would not support such draconian measures," she said. Dr Stanton said efforts to cut junk food from lunch boxes should be a group decision made by parents. But kindergartens say they are doing it with children's health in mind.

At Red Robin Kindergarten in Eastwood, parents had been told that birthday cakes should be as simple as possible, preschool teacher Jess Karhu said. "For birthdays we encourage a vanilla cupcake," Ms Karhu said. "It should be something little, not too big." And lunch boxes at the 40-child centre, which provides fruit platters for the children, do not escape scrutiny, with regular checks carried out. "If it is not appropriate it goes back in the lunch box," she said.

Council of Catholic School Parents executive director Danielle Cronin - who has a daughter at Red Robin Kindergarten - said the lunch-box checks and healthy birthday cake recommendations were helping youngsters develop good habits. "Preschools are probably leading the way with healthy-eating strategies in schools," Ms Cronin said, admitting lunch-box inspections could prove controversial. "Parents want to make sure that their kids are not hungry at school and they have the tendency then to load up the lunch box with all sorts of things," she said. "There is a sense that it is their right as a parent to fill their child's lunch box with whatever they choose or whatever their child is telling them they want. It possibly could be a bit a bit controversial. Some parents might object and some kids might object."

Ms Cronin is tackling the task of creating a healthy, but tasty, birthday cake that her daughter Virginia, who will turn five this week, can take to kindy to share with her friends. "The healthy cake option for us will probably be a plain homemade vanilla cake. We may put Smarties on top but we won't be doing the icing and cream option," she said.

Food and recipe writer Anneka Manning runs in-school cooking classes. She said parents of preschool- and school-age children must take responsibility for what goes into a child's lunch box. "It is just as much about educating parents as it is the children," she said.

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