A lot has changed in Ontario’s schools in the past couple of decades. In high schools, there’s more at the cafeteria than the fatty fare we gorged on as teens. And in elementary schools — while kids still get the excitement of Pizza Day — there are other dishes served on special days. Thanks to the Healthy Food for Healthy Schools Act, which resulted in a province-wide ban on junk food and vending machine pop and goodies in 2011, all publicly funded schools now sell healthier snacks and lunches based on the nutrition standards set in Canada’s Food Guide.
The goal, explains Zannat Reza, a registered dietitian in Toronto, is to provide lunches that are full of fibre-rich carbohydrates and protein. This combination slows digestion and releases sugar into the bloodstream evenly so there’s no sugar spike and subsequent crash. “This means your students will have energy for a longer period of time,” Reza says. “It will help them stay alert and allow them to concentrate better, and it will curb hunger.”
With this in mind, we checked out some popular hot lunchtime dishes in a few schools and discovered that while there are plenty of wholesome offerings, menus could still be better.
Explore more lunch items below:
LUNCH SPECIAL:
PASTA
POPULAR AT THE CAF:
MADE TO ORDER
FAJITAS
LUNCH SPECIAL:
PIZZA
POPULAR AT THE CAF:
SWEET & SOUR BEEF
STIR-FRY
LUNCH SPECIAL:
MINI TURKEY SUB
SANDWICH
