Victorian primary school bans food wrappings in students lunches

CHILDREN at a Victorian primary school have been urged to bring “nude” lunches to school or BYO a bowl to be served hot food at the canteen after the school imposed a food wrapper ban.

A PRIMARY school has banned food wrappings, with children urged to bring “nude” lunches and the canteen using only paper to cover snacks.

The wrapping ban at Urquhart Park Primary has forced parents to rethink their children’s school treats, with any chip packets and plastic wrap not allowed.

Students must bring their food in lunch boxes or, if they order lunch from the canteen, must bring a container for staff to supply fresh curries, soups, bolognese, sausage rolls or corn fritters.

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The school even donated lunch boxes, drink bottles and sandwich containers to students to ensure they could comply with the new rules.

(L-R) Lily, Tobias, Kobe and MacKenzie bring a bowl to the canteen for some hot pasta. Picture: Tony Gough

“We just knew it was the right way to go about things,” the school’s sustainable gardening kitchen teacher Kerry Hartmann said.

“The wrappers were a big problem.

“We used to have clean up time but that doesn’t happen any more, there are no wrappers in the yard at all, there’s no need for it.”

Urquhart Park Primary has a donation bin where staff and student can supply or collect containers to take home.

This year alone, the school in Ballarat has reduced its waste by more than 20 per cent.

Urquhart Park Primary School Junior Unit students Tobias and Lily say no to wrappers. Picture: Tony Gough

“We just want to (introduce the new rules) slowly and gently, our aim is just to do it with lots of caring,” Ms Hartmann said.

Urquhart Park Primary this year signed up to the ResourceSmart Schools program, which has helped more than 1300 Victorian schools save more than $20 million through energy, waste and water savings in a decade.

The program, run by Grampians Central West Waste & Resource Recovery Group, gets students to look at school energy bills and seek out savings and helps them reduce waste.

It even helps schools phase out wrappings — something the group’s executive officer La Vergne Lehmann hopes will one day become compulsory in all Victorian schools.

“These kids will grow up knowing you don’t have to cover everything in Glad Wrap — there’s easy ways around that,” she said.

“Sustainability should be something we embed within learning.”

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