SCHOOLS across the shire are doing their part to tackle the childhood obesity crisis.
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For some years, the shire’s schools have been taking part in initiatives such as “crunch and sip” where time is set aside each day for students to eat fruit and drink water.
Canteens are also providing more healthier options and parents are also encouraged to pack lunch boxes that contain less pre-packaged items and more fresh food.
Murrumbidgee Local Health District health promotion co-ordinator Brendan Pearson said obesity rates in children had plateaued, but that was no reason to become complacent.
“What that means is there hasn’t been any significant increase or decrease in the numbers,” he said.
“Our statistics show us 80 per cent of schools (in the MLHD region) are part of the crunch and sip program.
“State-wide it’s about 84 per cent.
“That’s a really good result.
“What we would like to see more of is children eating vegetables.
“It’s great they are eating fruit for crunch and sip, but children are still lacking when it comes to eating the required serves of vegetables every day.”
Leeton Public School has been participating in crunch and sip for many years.
Kindergarten teacher Gena Frazer said it continued to work well.
“The other good thing is if students haven’t had much for breakfast … they can have this early in the morning so it’s not a big break between breakfast and lunch,” she said.
In 2014-15, around one in four children aged five to 17 years were overweight or obese, comprised of 20.2 per cent overweight and 7.4 per cent obese.
However, research has found children that engage in healthy practices early on in life were more likely to continue that as they grew older.
Mr Pearson was pleased more parents were taking care when packing their children’s lunch boxes for the day ahead.
“We are seeing a lot more parents packing healthier options,” he said.
“Basically what we want to be seeing in there are foods that are part of the five food groups.
“That can be a small yogurt, slice of cheese, wholegrain bread, even nuts if they are allowed. What we don’t want is those packaged items. The other pleasing thing is more parents seem to be packing water for their children.
“We’ve seen less children coming with fruit boxes and cordial, so that’s good. We certainly encourage all of that to continue.” The MLHD itself has been practising what it preaches, banning all sugar drinks from its health facilities.