Student Well-Being

Aside from its primary role of providing nutritious meals in schools, education catering in Australia actually has the bigger role in contributing to the overall well-being and success.

This role is challenging enough to be able to pass through several stakeholders via coordination. The main requirement is simply to ensure that the food is prepared and served safely.

The role

The Education Catering Australia strives to work in overcoming these challenges. They do these by way of offering multiple services, which includes menu planning, food production, and delivery to the schools concerned.

One of the primary challenges of providing nutritious meals is schools in the requirement of catering to the diverse dietary needs and preferences. This includes catering to students with different allergies, several intolerances and diverse cultural or religious requirements.

These catering companies will need to work closely with their assigned schools to understand the needs of the students. After which, they shall then develop menus that meet these requirements.

All of these are worked out while ensuring that the food is delicious and appealing to the students.

Healthy habits

Education catering in Australia plays a key role in promoting healthy habits. This is in addition to meeting the nutritional needs of students.

To date, there are now many schools in Australia that have implemented beneficial eating policies. These policies are mainly aimed to encourage students to make healthier food choices.

Policy support

Education catering companies can support these policies by providing a range of fit options into their menus. These include such items as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean protein.

With the inclusion of tasty and nutritious meals, education catering companies can help to foster a culture of healthy eating in schools without coercion or pressure.

Various benefits of education catering

For both the students and the schools, there are very important benefits derived from the meal policy. For students, access to nutritious meals can positively impact their overall health and well-being, as well as their academic performance.

Studies have been known to show that students with access to healthy meals are more likely to have better attendance rates, higher grades, and improved concentration and memory.

Benefits for schools

For schools with catered meals for student, education catering can help to save time and resources. The logistics of food preparations and the feeding process are extras that schools cannot afford to implement properly and well.

With the outsourcing of the provisions of the meals to an education catering company, schools can free up staff time and resources to focus on other areas of the school.

Benefits for students

It had been shown that there is a good level of support at the community level. To date, the swapping from a predominantly lunchbox model to a school-provided meals system will need more time to comfortably get accustomed to.

However, eating together provides an opportunity for students to develop their developing social skills which they later would need at some later age level.

To date, some difficulties had been considered and are now properly addressed to.  Not just a question of handing out cheese and ham sandwiches, these meals are going to be provided at school that will accommodate differences in cultures, dietary needs and geographic areas.

There is the need for the program to be sustainable. Funding needs to be ongoing, and food supply chains and waste will have to be addressed correctly and be taken into account.

Economies of scale

Education catering companies also typically have access to economies of scale, which can help reduce the cost of providing school meals. Additionally, education catering companies in Australia are typically committed to sustainability, which can benefit the environment.

Education catering companies typically use locally-sourced ingredients and implement such sustainable practices, such as composting, recycling, and reducing food waste.

Benefits for the family

Providing food at school has many other side benefits not just to students and the schools, but also to the respective families of the students.

From the perspective of the food suppliers (caterers), not only does it save time-poor families time and energy (no more morning meal prep), but it makes sure all students have access to good food.

For other community people, it can also create jobs and other opportunities to teach students about food production and healthy eating. From an environmental perspective, it can cut down on packaging waste.

Benefits for other participants

In our research, we asked teachers, parents, canteen managers, food relief workers, and health promotion officers to come up with ideas for how school food could be done differently in Australia.

This group said a school-provided lunch prepared onsite was likely to be most achievable and have an impact. By repurposing existing canteen facilities, schools could provide a nutritious, sit-down meal.

Parent support

Parents have been known to support this endeavor. Depending on how the question is it framed, surveys have found support ranging from 53% to 86%.

Parents don’t necessarily expect lunches to be free, either. They are already spending on average $4 per child per day, and some are willing to pay similar or more for school-provided lunches.

Last notes

School meals could provide so many benefits, from creating jobs to addressing food insecurity, supporting local food production, reducing the burden on parents, and supporting student wellbeing, attendance and school performance.

If school-provided meals are going to be successful and embraced by school communities, they need support from families, governments, health and education experts, as well as primary industries.

Education catering, considering all the obvious facets, does  play a vital role in promoting healthy eating habits among students in Australia. By providing nutritious meals and supporting schools with their meal programs, education catering companies can help to create a healthier and more efficient school environment.

By providing nutritious meals and supporting schools with their meal programs, education catering companies can help to create a healthier and more efficient school environment. This will ultimately benefit students by assisting them in developing healthy eating habits they can carry throughout life.