St Denis school one of top 10 in nutritional competition

8/11/96

Health Minister Kevin Prince today named St Denis' Primary School as one of the top 10 schools in the Health Department's Great Schools Fruit 'n' Veg Feast competition.

Thirty-two students from the Year Four Class at St Denis' Primary School made the top 10 by eating 696 serves of fruit and vegetables at school during the week of the Feast in September.

"This is just over four serves per day per student, above the one serve of fruit and three serves of vegetables recommended by the Health Department for the whole day," Mr Prince said.

More than 70,000 primary school children from 361 schools throughout the State - from Kununurra to Esperance, and inland to Kalgoorlie - took part in The Great Schools Fruit 'n' Veg Feast.

Each day, children used stickers to record how much fruit and vegetable they consumed at school, either brought from home or bought from their school canteen.

Teachers tallied the amount of fruit and vegetable eaten by their class, and that tally was phoned through to the Feast hotline.

"The aim of the Feast was to encourage children to try different types of fruit and vegetables, and to show that fruit and vegetables can be a fun and tasty part of the school snacks and lunches," Mr Prince said.

A State-wide survey by the Health Department of Year 6 children during Fruit 'n' Veg week in 1995 found that 10 per cent did not eat any fruit and 11 per cent did not eat any vegetables on the day of the survey.

Thirty-eight per cent of children surveyed were not eating the recommended intake of fruit and vegetables each day.

On average, these children ate only one serve of fruit and one serve of vegetables at school.

"If we assume that Year Six children's diets are typical of all primary school children's diets, then nearly 20,000 Western Australian children are eating no fruit and more than 21,000 are eating no vegetables each day," Mr Prince said.

"Using the same assumption, nearly 70,000 primary school children are eating less than the recommended amount of one serve of fruit and three serves of vegetables per day.

"One of our objectives was to increase fruit and vegetable consumption at school, which our winners did beyond expectation.

"The challenge is to maintain high consumption as part of children's usual daily diet."

Mr Prince said fruit and vegetables were ideal for school lunches and were a nutritious, economical alternative to many processed foods marketed for lunch boxes.

Other top 10 winners in the Feast were: Northampton District High School, Applecross Primary School, Melville Primary School, Boyare Primary School, Bull Creek Primary School, South Terrace Primary School, Cooinda School and St Brigid's Primary School.

Media contact: Kirsten Stoney 366 0300