18 Healthy food for lunchboxes

This lunchbox resource is designed to be added to the department’s guidelines for school lunches. The photo can be attached as an Appendix or be added as an extra page to the document. It is aimed to help culturally diverse families understand what they can put in their child’s lunchboxes from their own culture if they desire. There are pictures of food from Vietnamese, Spanish and Chinese that are traditional foods that are able to be eaten cold. This resource is kept simple so as to be able to be easily read and understood.

By using this resource to help families understand what can be put in lunchboxes, educators are supporting the cultures of their classroom and showing families that they respect their choices for their children along with encouraging cultural diversity in the classroom. Education Queensland (The State of Queensland Department of Education, 2020) offers information about what food groups to include in school lunches. These include fruit, wholegrain bread, salad or vegetables, meat or meat alternatives. The lunchbox resource shows these food groups so it is in line with the guidelines for healthy lunches. The lunchbox resource is designed to encourage healthy cultural food to be included in lunches.