Food and Nutrition

Food and nutrition play a key role in a student’s overall health and well-being. Check out the resources below to help you develop a Food and Nutrition Plan for your school using the Comprehensive School Health Planning Approach.

In your Food and Nutrition Plan, try to include actions that influence all four inter-related healthy school areas. You’ll find some examples below:

1. Teaching and Learning:
   • Use credible nutrition information and resources to teach the curriculum, such as:
     • BrightBites: Grade-specific curriculum support and resources, to help teach about food and nutrition in a positive way, promoting a neutral approach to food and an inclusive approach to bodies.
     • https://foodisscience.ca/: Experiential, evidence-based resources to help educators understand and teach food literacy as part of Ontario’s Science and Technology curriculum.
     • Canada’s Food Guide
     • UnlockFood.ca
   • Promote virtual nutrition training opportunities for educators, such as:
     • Ophea - Professional Learning: Healthy Eating (Webinars)
     • Teach Food First - YouTube
   • Hold an in-person training session for educators, offered by an EOHU registered dietitian, about weight bias, body image and the importance of using neutral language when it comes to food and bodies.  

     • A recorded version of this training session is available on YouTube. 

2. Social and Physical Environment:
   • Review the Creating a Positive Food Environment in Schools resource, which offers great tips to support your school in creating positive social and physical food environments.
   • Explore the topic ideas listed in the School Food Climate section of BrightBites.
3. Policies:
   • The Creating a Positive Food Environment in Schools resource also provides information on policies and guidelines for food and beverages offered or sold to students at school (such as Ontario’s Policy/Program Memorandum 150 and Student Nutrition Program (SNP) guidelines).
4. Partnerships and Services:
   • Collaborate with experts from different community agencies. This will make your team stronger and better supported. The EOHU is available to offer support to your school team, but don’t forget to involve other community partners and your whole school community, which includes parents/guardians.
   • Promote resources for parents/guardians:
     • School Lunch Your Kids Will Munch offers tips on how to pack a school lunch.
     • UnlockFood.ca provides easy-to-use nutrition information on how to improve nutrition at school, as well as recipes and more lunch ideas.
     • 10 Tips to Help Your Child Have a Positive Relationship with Food and their Body
     • How to Talk to Teens About Food

Want to address your students’ mental health in your Food and Nutrition Plan?

Weight-based bullying from friends, family, or other adults can negatively affect a child’s confidence and mental well-being. It can impact their body image and self-esteem, and lead to increased stress, anxiety, depression, disordered eating habits, and even eating disorders.

Here are resources that can help your school promote student mental health and well-being, and help prevent disordered eating and eating disorders:

• Overview of Disordered Eating Prevention – How Can Schools Help?
• Beyond Images provides the opportunity to explore key issues in society around body image and self-esteem, as well as media messaging. Includes lesson plans for grades 4 to 8.
• Weight Bias
• Weight-Based Bullying
• Body Inclusivity