- Home
- Health Topics
- School Nutrition
- Packing for the Balanced School Day
Packing for the Balanced School Day
The balanced school day gives children more time to eat compared to the traditional schedule because there are two nutrition breaks. This makes it more difficult to plan meals. Talk to your kids about the types of lunches and snacks they would like during school, and ask if they eat more in the morning or in the afternoon.
There are a few different ways you can divide up the food throughout the day:
- Option 1: snack at nutrition break 1 and lunch at nutrition break 2
- Option 2: lunch at nutrition break 1 and snack at nutrition break 2
- Option 3: ½ lunch and a snack at nutrition break 1 and ½ lunch and a snack at nutrition break 2
For food at each break, try to include at least 3 of the 4 food groups from Canada’s Food Guide. Involve your kids in the lunch making process. Younger kids can put food into containers and older kids can help make sandwiches.
If you’re worried that your children will eat all their food the first break, help them figure out what to eat and when. You can:
- Pack the food for each nutrition break in separate containers and label them “break one” and “break two”
- Use a piece of cardboard to divide up the food. Eat everything on top of the cardboard at the first break, and the rest of the food gets eaten at the second break.