Summary (<2minutes): 10-15minutes is NOT ENOUGH for children to eat their lunch mindfully and learn to cement healthy eating habits during their growing years away from home. The current practice of having only 10-15minutes to eat their lunch and then transitioning them to play time does not set them up well at all. Children should not have to make the tough choice between good nutrition and physical activity - both are equally important. In the end, children are the ones that lose whichever choice they make. They either go hungry or they miss out on exercise - both equally essential for healthy living. Our children deserve better and their health is important. Let's help them advocate for this change! :) 

Reason for this petition:

Parents are left feeling helpless in advocating for a more decent lunch eating time and regular snack breaks for their children in primary school. Many are told by their school it's not a problem and nothing else needed to be done. I have done an informal survey amongst parents within my kid's primary school highlighting parents' concerns around inadequate lunch eating time at school and presented it to the school principal but was dismissed without further acknowledgement of the issue or how they could address it. I have raised it with our local MP Ellen Sandell who raised some questions in parliament on 3rd August 2021 and received a response from The Hon James Merlino MP, which essentially directs back to schools in making their own local decisions. It is this lack of governance from top-down making this public health concern invisible. I have also raised it with the Department of Education regional office. The officer I spoke with was even surprised primary school children were only given 10-15minutes eating time for lunch and said I was the first and only parent who raised this issue. I told him parents are busy people and many just stop after being told that's the way it is by their schools, but that doesn't mean it is not an issue because parents I've spoken to tell me otherwise. 

With this petition, I would like to bring attention to this public health issue and hopefully bring about changes/governance to improve the nutrition environment for all primary school children in Victoria, Australia at least if not the whole of Australia. Perhaps tackling the issue of childhood obesity needs to start with providing children the TIME to eat healthy in the first place. Thank you for reading and seeking change for our children.

 

For in-depth background reading, please proceed. Otherwise feel free to skip! Reading time: ~ 5minutes

"I don't have enough time to eat."

For many parents of primary school children, this is a common answer they hear when their children come back with leftovers in their lunch bag. In Victoria, Australia, most primary school children are given only 10-15 minutes eating time for lunch. They only have 10-15 minutes to eat then they are told it's time for outside play, asked to pack up their lunch but then also told they can continue to eat their lunch outside if they wish. Let's pause here and think for a minute. How is this a fair setup for children making them choose between eating and playing? And how many children will want to reopen their lunchboxes again after being asked to pack up? It's so disruptive! Put yourself in their little shoes and imagine what it must feel like for them! In reality, with 10-15 minutes allocated for lunch on paper, that really translates to 5-10 minutes eating time in practice after doing hand hygiene and getting their lunch bags ready. 

At present, there is no policy on nutrition or hydration by the Department of Education (Victoria, Australia) to guide schools. There is a lack governance to ensure schools are meeting their basic duty of care in providing enough time for children to have their nutrition and hydration (lunch and snacks) and also their mental break time for them to decompress from classroom rules and learning. Children need more than 10-15 minutes for a main meal. The American Paediatric Association recommends at least 20 minutes seated time for eating. So why aren't our primary school children given the recommended seated time (i.e. 30 minutes should be allocated for lunch to ensure 20 minutes of seated eating time)? 

A report in the UK has found that the length of break times in school (including lunch/recess) has shortened over the years and they have provided recommendations at the end which included one for policy makers to consider legislating break times for students (Blaines & Blatchford 2019). Just recently, a research article has been published with findings from surveys conducted in teachers and parents across Australian primary schools highlighting eating times in school as an area of interest for policy makers (Burton 2022). Quote from the article: "Ten minutes was the allocated lunch eating duration reported by most parents and teachers and 58% of those parents and 30% of those teachers rated this as inadequate." It is interesting to see only 30% of those teachers rated this as inadequate - teachers are limited by what they can do within the boundaries set by the school. So, even if they prioritise nutrition high up on their list and can see it as important, they may not be able to implement say for instance, a fruit break if the school or other teachers are not on-board with the idea even though the children need one. So it's up to the Department of Education to set boundaries to ensure our children's basic needs (ie. nutrition and hydration) are met as it's the same for all children and it needs to be standardised across all schools. In a crossover trial in the US of 241 lunch observations from 38 children, 20 minutes of seated lunch time were associated with significantly more consumption and significantly less waste of fruits and vegetables compared with 10 minutes of seated lunch time (Burg et al 2021). 

In Victoria, Australia, school hours are usually between 8.30am - 3.30pm (7 hours) and are decided by the school principal. There is the mandatory instruction time (5hours) and the mandatory physical and sport minimum delivery times (which works out to be an average of 60mins/day or 1 hour) = total of 6 hours which are mandated. At the primary school my child attends, school hours are 9am-3.15pm (6hours, 15mins) = therefore after the mandated 6 hours, only 15 minutes are left and allocated for eating lunch. Recess time in the afternoon is scheduled physical activity time only. Their snack time at recess is actually part of instruction time in the teaching period prior to recess - but it's unpredictable how much time they get as there is no standard (it is at the discretion of the teacher). Sometimes it's enough time to eat a whole apple (that has been pre-sliced and peeled - to allow faster chewing/easier to eat), and sometimes, it's only enough time for half an apple. There's no guarantee children are given the time they need for their nutrition/hydration. Children need structure and routine to keep fueled and hydrated to be the best learners they can be. Eating and drinking well will make them better learners and improve their learning outcomes (Burrows et al 2017; Florence et al 2008).

Some of the consequences of not scheduling enough time for primary school children to eat in school are listed below:

1) Children are not getting enough nutrition (and hydration) for their growth and development. It makes it difficult for them to focus during lessons and being 'hangry' may be expressed as challenging behaviours or tantrums either at school or home. 

2) Children's innate hunger and satiety cues are re-conditioned and over time, they may lose that natural ability resulting in behaviours such as over-eating especially towards the end of the day. At present, children are starving by the end of the school day and find themselves needing to eat ++ after school to try to make up for lost 'eating time'. They may then find themselves too full for their usual dinner and still miss out on overall nutrition for the day. Over time, parents and children may select more energy-dense foods/snacks as they feel they may have missed out during the day so it's OK to have more discretionary foods to fill in the gaps to make up for the energy-deficit during the day. 

3) The little amount of time given for eating sends an underlying message to the children that eating is not important. It is less important than physical activity and even less important than learning. What kind of healthy eating habits are we trying to build in our children? They should be given the time to socialise and enjoy eating with their peers, getting enough nutrition for growth/development and being the best learners they can be.

4) Healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, protein foods, grains take more time to eat/chew. If not enough time is allocated for eating (lunch or snacks), these healthy foods will be left out. It is no wonder children find it hard to eat the recommended servings of vegetables when they spend half their day or more in school and there is no opportunity to. 

5) Parents are thinking of ways to help their child eat faster by modifying foods/considering what they can pack. For instance, rather than packing a whole apple, an apple will have to be peeled and sliced to ensure more of it is eaten at school. Different food textures are important for developing healthy strong gums and also for the development of mouth movements and speech in children. For instance crunchy foods (e.g. apples/carrots), which again will take time to eat/chew compared to drinking something liquid. 

6) Teachers are put under (unnecessary) pressure to ensure children eat as much as they can, especially when there is not much time allocated within the timetable in the first place. They can only go by what the school allocates, so they are pretty much helpless being caught in this situation trying to get the kids to eat more within an unrealistic short timeframe and unable to provide a solution/reassurance to parents as they can't give more time. This is an issue when schools do not prioritise nutrition and hydration as important. Hence the Department of Education and Department of Health should work hand-in-hand to facilitate a systems approach to change here (ie. nutrition and hydration policy for schools to ensure all primary school children are looked after). 

For the nutrition and hydration policy for primary schools, I would recommend a 30 minutes lunch eating time (to ensure a seated eating time of at least 20 minutes is provided as recommended) as well as 2x 10-15minutes snack time (within curriculum time). I would also recommend students to have their drink bottles on their desk or beside them in classrooms and take their drink bottles with them when they leave the classrooms. Teachers should encourage students to keep hydrated throughout the day and allow the students to drink water freely whenever they are thirsty without the need to ask for permission. These are the children's basic rights. See example timetable below.

Example school timetable:

9am-10am: Session 1 (1x10-15min snack break within teaching time, e.g. 1xserve fruit/vegetable/dairy as per Australian Guide to Healthy Eating)

10am-11am: Session 2

11am-11.30am: Lunch break (play time)

11.30am-12pm: Lunch eating time

12pm-1pm: Session 3

1pm-2pm: Session 4 (1x10-15min snack break within teaching time as above)

2-2.30pm: Recess break (play time)

2.30pm-3.30pm: Session 5

 

There needs to be consideration regarding setting a minimum standard number of school hours in order to fit in all the hours stipulated by current or required policies. As we know mentioned from above, currently 5 hours are mandated curriculum time, 1hour physical activity time. Now, with the proposed mandatory 30 minutes set aside for lunch eating time, there needs to be a minimum of 6.5hours school hours to make this work. The 2x snack breaks during the school day are incorporated within curriculum time. At present my school only has 6hours and 15 minutes school time (9am-3.15pm) so without a minimum standard number of hours, even with a policy stating 30 minutes lunch eating time, the school is unable to achieve it. Some schools adopt the 'Crunch n Sip' program and others have 'brain fuel breaks', but what about other schools without these programs? There needs to be a standard to ensure all primary school children get enough time for nutrition and hydration during school hours.  

It should be standard practice across all schools that water bottles are allowed on desks and children should be allowed to drink freely (without the need to ask for permission) according to their thirst and also encouraged to do so frequently throughout the day. They should also be encouraged to bring their drink bottles along with them for PE/Sports or other specialist classes so they have easy access.

It is a concern among parents across various primary schools in Victoria - let us put our voices together so we can speak up for our children. There needs to be a policy to mandate 30 minutes eating time for lunch to ensure 20 minutes of actual seated eating time (instead of the current practice of allowing only 10-15 minutes eating time in class before our children are interrupted to pack up and then offered to choose between eating or playing). Making drink bottles available on desk and bringing it with them if out of classroom and allowing them to drink freely is also important. Parents should not have to advocate for these every year or with every new teacher or school as these should be standardised. Habits adopted at school from prep are reinforced during the 7 years at primary school and that's how they build habits for life. 7 years is a long time. 

Thank you for reading and signing this petition for the better health of our children. It needs to change NOW. Any delay means another generation of children lost to the current school system which does not allow time for children to build healthy eating habits. Every year, another generation of children loses this opportunity. It's not that they don't want to eat healthy, they CAN'T, not unless TIME is given. 

 

Reference:

Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE). https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines

Baines, E., & Blatchford, P.,  (2019). School break and lunch times and young people's social lives: a follow-up national study. Final report. Retrieved from: https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Final-report-School-break-and-lunch-times-and-young-peoples-lives-A-follow-up-national-study.pdf 

Burg, X. et al (2021). Effects of longer seated lunch time on food consumption and waste in elementary and middle school-age children: a randomised clinical trial. JAMA Open Network, 4(6): e2114148. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2781214?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamanetworkopen.2021.14148

Burrows, et al (2017). Is there an association between dietary intake and academic achievement: a systematic review. 30(2), 117-140. https://doi.org/10.1111/jhn.12407

Burton, M. et al (2022). Enough time for lunch? The duration and governance of lunch eating times in Australian primary schools: A mixed-methods study. Appetite (2022): 169.

Florence, et al (2008). Diet quality and academic performance. Journal of School Health, 78(4), 209-215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2008.00288.x