Students fight to get hot chips sold in school canteen

WHEN the school banned their favourite treat, these chip-loving students refused to back down.

Students at De La Salle College are fighting to bring hot chips back to their canteen.

WHEN the school banned their favourite treat, these chip-loving students refused to back down.

The anonymous group from De La Salle College, at Revesby in Sydney’s south-west, arguing that hot chips are fundamental to “successful academic achievements”.

“To satisfy everyone’s desire for some fried potato, we believe this is a necessity for successful academic achievements to get above the state cohort,” the group’s Change.org petition says.

The online appeal has garnered 340 signatures in support, but the students face an uphill battle with the State Government recently releasing a new healthy school canteen strategy.

The petition launched by students at De La Salle College Revesby.

Under the new strategy, all NSW public schools are required to transition to the strategy over the next three years and non-government schools are strongly encouraged to participate.

De La Salle College principal Timothy Logue said that while he was supportive of the students’ enterprising skills to organise an online petition, the school canteen would not be returning hot chips to the menu.

“We have discussed with the students the importance of nutrition and physical activity, and how research shows that it underpins effective student learning and achievement,” Mr Logue added. “It’s all about reshaping old ways of thinking.”

The new strategy replaced the “traffic light” system that set green, orange and red categories to food depending on their nutritional value.

Surprisingly, hot chips didn’t make the cut.

“The new NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy strikes the right balance between nutrition and freedom of choice,” Mr Logue said.

“Our canteen menu offers students very healthy options like fresh fruit salad bowls, salad wraps and sushi.”