Canteens and healthy food and drinks

Many of Canberra’s schools have been working with their canteens to help them follow their school’s food and drinks policy by providing a wide variety of healthy food and drinks.

If your canteen needs some more support to switch to a more nutritious menu, you’ll find plenty of resources available below.

This page is part of the Fresh Tastes program.

Website resources

National Healthy School Canteen Guidelines

All ACT public school canteen services, from Parents and Citizens (P&C) run canteens to local businesses, need to follow the National Healthy School Canteen Guidelines.

The guidelines use a traffic light system to categorise food and drinks. Red food items are not permitted to be sold in public school canteens and must be limited at school events and fundraisers.

Read the guidelines on the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care website.

Nutrition Australia ACT

Nutrition Australia ACT provides advice and support to all school food service providers. There is a fee for these services. They can provide menu assessments, menu ideas, recipes and recommendations for suitable products to meet the National Healthy School Canteen Guidelines and ACT Public School Food and Drink Policy 2015.

Contact Nutrition Australia ACT for more information and to discuss pricing options.

NSW Healthy Kids Association

ACT school canteens can join the NSW Healthy Kids Association. Membership provides access to resources and tools for schools such as advice on running the canteen, seasonal recipes and videos, interactive and printable teaching resources, fun activities for children, resources for parents, access to exclusive offers, regular communications and information about upcoming workshops and programs.

Go to the Healthy Kids Assocation website to find out more.

ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Association

The council helps parent and citizen managed school canteens with resources, advice and advocacy. The council can also connect you with other canteens to share expertise.

Go to the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Association website to find out more.

ACT Education Directorate

EDU Strategic Procurement helps ACT public schools to explore canteen options and manage contracts with non-P&C canteen providers.

To access support, ACT public schools can email EDUStrategicProcurement@act.gov.au.

Setting up a canteen

The Sax Institute’s Case studies of sustainable school canteen models in the ACT: summary report [PDF 853 KB] provides a simple, practical reference guide to help your school choose a type of canteen that suits your environment and helpful tips to optimise your school canteen.

Learning about the traffic light system

The Go for Green online course is a 30-minute course with an accompanying guide [PDF 9.1 MB] to help you understand the traffic light system and the National Healthy School Canteen Guidelines.

Find out more about the Go for Green online course.

Maintaining a canteen

Go to the following resources:

Business Essentials Manual [PDF 7.8 MB] – how to set up a healthy P&C run canteen
Marketing Healthy Food at School Manual – how canteens can market healthy food and drinks
Canteen Connect ACT – a private Facebook group for ACT canteen managers and support staff to network with one another, ask questions, share ideas and provide support.

Promotional resources for canteens

Posters

Print these posters to promote healthier choices in your canteen:

Stickers

Use stickers to jazz-up your healthy options. Send these files to your printing company or print them yourself using our templates on Avery L7105 labels.