Designed with parents, for parents.
Children who attend the majority of local Early Years settings take a lunch box from home. In the Bailiwick, most children will also have a lunch box through primary and secondary school. However, as many parents know, being inventive and creating a balanced lunch box can be a challenge.
Working with early years settings and parents in 2018, we looked at what was in 171 lunch boxes of children aged 3-4 years and what they ate from the lunch boxes they were given. We then compared what we found with nutrition recommendations for this age group. We also ran focus groups with parents to help us understand the findings and how we could help.
Based on this we created the Lunchbox Lowdown resource for parents giving 50 different lunchbox ideas alongside portion size guidance for children aged 1-2 and 3-5. We've distributed over 750 copies to local early years settings so far.
This resource is designed to support wider action to improve the food environment in early years settings and within the community as a whole.