The children, who make up the local primary school’s ‘Seen & Heard’ rights respecting group, decided to open a Friday break-time stall.
They wanted to offer free, healthy samples of various exotic treats for their fellow pupils to enjoy.
‘In the supermarket, this sort of fruit and veg is quite expensive,’ said 11-year-old Livvy McGeoch, who was one of this week’s serving helpers, offering cubed radishes and sliced kiwi – the latter was flying off the platter.
‘So it’s a really good opportunity for healthy eating and to try new things. I’d never tried pineapple or watermelon before, and I love them.
‘It’s here every Friday, and everyone looks forward to it. I have to make sure that there’s enough for everyone to try, and then they can vote for their favourite.’
The Snack Shack has been funded by The Health Improvement Commission to run throughout the summer term and has offered new options each week. But the school wants to keep their Friday favourites freshly-stocked and serving all year.
‘The trial so far has been hugely popular across the school,’ said Dawn Cooper, teacher and rights respecting lead.
‘We know that not every child has the same access to healthy foods in their lunchboxes, and some children need a little encouragement to try new things. The Snack Shack helps normalise eating well in school, is completely free and offers everyone an array of new delicious foods to try alongside their peers. They still bring in their own favourite fruit and vegetable snacks from home, but they can have a small taste of something different.
‘We’ve noticed that lots of them are now changing up their regular snack for some of the new things they’ve tried. As a Gold Rights Respecting school, we know that children should have the opportunity to access nutritious food. HIC helped us get this initiative off the ground, but to keep it going long-term, we’re asking people and organisations to please get in touch if they can help fund it.’
Cat Tyrrell from HIC’s Eat Well team worked closely with the local students to open the shack.
‘It’s been strongly led by the school pupils, which has shown really amazing teamwork and leadership,’ she said.
‘There’s an inequality in the community in terms of access and affordability to healthy foods. We work with lots of primary schools to help their new approaches to food and nutrition.
‘Where possible, we do our best to offer the funding, support and guidance needed to make these things a reality. We’re now putting a call out to anybody who can offer this Snack Shack consistent funding. That would be amazing.’
Anyone who could help can contact dawn.cooper@education.gg
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