Michelle Jones
A LUNCHBOX is the answer to children’s health, not the tuckshop, says the Human Sciences Research Council after a study done at Western Cape schools.
Fieldworkers questioned 717 Grade 4 pupils at 16 schools, in rural and urban areas, about everything they had eaten the day before.
The survey found 69 percent of pupils carried a lunchbox to school and 49 percent consumed at least one item bought from the school tuckshop.
Of those who did not carry a lunchbox to school, 60 percent consumed an item bought from the tuckshop and 60 percent ate food provided by the school feeding scheme. Others did not eat anything during the school day.
Some 90 percent of pupils ate breakfast.
In all, 19 percent of pupils were stunted, 2 percent were underweight and 21 percent either overweight or obese.
Children without lunchboxes told fieldworkers there was a lack of food at home.
Unsurprisingly, the pupils who carried a lunchbox to school were predominantly from urban schools and had higher standards of living.
The researchers found that pupils from disadvantaged homes had no control over whether they were able to bring a lunchbox to school.
However, the researchers found there were a number of barriers to the promotion of good nutrition in schools in low-income communities.
The provision of nutritionally adequate meals to these schoolchildren was essential, the report said.