Students are flocking to chip stands such as this on Bank Sreet during their lunch hour.
Students thirsty for a sugary pop or hungry for a greasy serving of poutine might not be able to buy their favourite junk foods in Ontario public schools anymore, but that hasn’t stopped students in Centretown from getting their fix at lunchtime.
Since September, Ontario’s School Food and Beverage Policy has required publicly funded elementary schools and high schools to ban the sale of foods and drinks containing excessive amounts of fat, sugar, and sodium and replace them with more nutritious options.
The nutritional standards adopted in the policy come from Canada’s Food Guide, which is designed to foster healthy growth and development.
However, despite the efforts of schools to promote healthy eating, students aren’t biting into the new rules each lunch hour as they flock down Bank Street to fill up on junk food.
“I don’t have to go to Glashan to know when they are out for recess or when they’re out for lunchtime,” says Nancy Desjardins, who works at the Centretown United Church across the street from Glashan Public School. “You just have to look at the chip truck across the street and you’ll see the line up of kids out there.”
The province-wide regulations come partially in response to the most recent Canadian Community Health Survey, conducted in 2004, which found one in four children and youth to be either overweight or obese.
But, as students with a sweet tooth and parental permission to leave school at lunchtime have found out, the new rules don’t apply to snacks bought off school property or brought from home.
Instead, they only apply to foods and beverages sold in school cafeterias and vending machines, or at events such as bake sales and tournaments.
“We try to educate students about nutrition, balance, and eating healthy, but then at lunch there is a chip truck around the corner from the school and a lot of people go there to buy poutine and fries,” says Sean Oussoren, a Grade 7 teacher at Glashan Public School.
Oussoren shows students how to create healthy meals that taste good.
“At school we make smoothies with yogurt and fresh fruit, muffins with whole grains and even things like chillies which are low in sodium or brownies that have black beans in them.”
Students are often surprised with how good homemade meals can taste, he says. Selling kids on eating healthy is more difficult than dissuading them from buying junk food, he adds.
“It would be nice if everyone bought healthy food, but the reality of a downtown school like ours is that some kids are going to choose to go out and find junk food for lunch,” says Oussoren.
In addition to fresh cut fries, students at Ottawa’s downtown schools are also tempted by gas stations offering chips and chocolate bars, convenience stores selling pop and energy drinks, and fast food joints serving up processed meals.
It’s a combination that places schools like Glashan on the steps of a junk food buffet, says Dr. Gary Goldfield, a nutrition expert at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario where he works to prevent childhood obesity.
While Goldfield supports the initiative to encourage kids to eat healthy, he says modifying the eating environment in schools doesn’t necessarily promote healthy eating.
Instead, it encourages kids to over-compensate by gorging on junk food as soon as they get the opportunity.
“If you limit the amount of junk food that they can get at school, then when they go for lunch or walk home, kids will stop at the 7-Eleven and pick up snack food there,” says Goldfield.
If the opportunity is readily available, he says kids will always choose potato chips and fries over vegetables and salads.