For today's post, I thought I would share with you my daughter's school's snack guidelines our Wellness Committee worked on and adpoted this year. As we begin the process of making changes in our schools to make them healthier, I believe it is empowering to know what others are already doing. Does your child's school or school district have a healthy snack policy? At the beginning of the year, ours didn't, but now it does!
I'm sharing these guidelines with you to use as a resource and please keep in mind, these guidelines aren't the end-all-be-all, but rather they are a start in the right direction.
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Snack Guidelines
Snacks are an important part of children’s daily nutrition. Daily snacks help ensure that children receive the nutrition they need to learn, play and grow. Organized, structured, and supervised programs that provide healthy snacks allow children to think and behave better, and help them make the grade! Daily snacks are offered in our primary (K-2) classrooms to provide students with a much needed nutrition boost for their long days.
Parents are encouraged to bring healthy snacks for the class. Some ideas are:
- Raw vegetables with low-fat dressing or yogurt dip
- Fresh fruit and 100% fruit juice
- Frozen 100% fruit juice or low-fat yogurt pops
- Dried fruit (raisins, banana chips, etc.)
- Trail mix
- Dry roasted peanuts, tree nuts, or soy nuts (not coconut or palm nuts)
- Low-fat/low-sodium meats (jerky)
- Low-fat and low-sugar popcorn
- Low-fat cheese sticks
- Party mix or individual items in the mix (such as cereals, nuts, pretzels, etc)
- Low-sodium crackers
- Baked corn chips, potato chips etc.
- Low-fat/ low-sugar granola bars
- Low-fat yogurt
- Fruit parfaits made with low-fat yogurt, trail mix and/or fresh fruit
- Low-fat and skim milk/dairy products
- Water
Parents are also encouraged to keep portion size in mind for snacks:
- One ounce for baked chips, crackers, popcorn, cereal, trail mix, nuts, seeds, dried fruit or jerky
- Two ounces for cereal bars, granola bars, bagels etc.
- Four ounces for parfaits, yogurt, milk products, juices
Snacks that are discouraged are:
- Carbonated and/or caffeinated beverages
- High sugar and/or high fat content foods such as candy, cakes, cookies, brownies, doughnuts, whole fat ice cream, desserts, and pastries
