A popular Palmerston North secondary school cafeteria is not serving enough healthy foods says 17 year old Awatapu College student, Kris Mantjika.
The Awatapu College Cafeteria is serving an abundance of sugary drinks, deep fried foods and hot pies and sausage rolls. "I demand that Awatapu College respect the health needs of students and that if they continue to serve these foods they are encouraging child obesity, and i'll need to talk to Hekia Parata [The Minister of Education]", says Mr Mantjika.
The healthy foods they are serving, like sandwiches, are too expensive and the daily specials are always on unhealthy foods like hotcakes and chicken nuggets, Mr Mantjika told Mark Wasley News.
Another student, who wishes to remain Anonymous, says that the unhealthy foods need to be more expensive than the healthy foods to encourage healthy eating. The student also reports that more sandwiches, filled rolls and fresh fruit need to be added to the menu.
Cafeteria Operator Sara Davies told Mark Wasley News that they have tried to serve fruit at school but it is not in demand by students. "Students just don't buy fruit at school", she said.
"We have tried selling fruit and fruit salads but students just don't buy fruit at school".
The canteen is often provides a treat for students at the college, things like sandwiches, filled rolls and fresh fruit are part of someones normal lunch.
Also this report is bias as you have not gathered both sides of the story,
There's nothing forcing students to use the cafeteria. If they are so fussed about what they have for lunch, why not just make your own lunch at hoe and take that with you. Then you won't have any reason to complain about it being unhealthy or costing too much. And if that is too hard to do then i think your just looking for chances to start battles that don't need to occur.
CLEARLY this person has not seen a university… they are full of vending machines and free junk food during the first weeks. Child obesity? Students at secondary school are expected to make these sorts of decisions for themselves, they don't HAVE to go to the cafeteria NOR are they encouraged to do so; if they have a problem with the food, they should bring their own lunch like they're supposed to or go to the dairy/bakery down the road.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has nothing to do with the sorts of food sold on the grounds, this is a Ministry of Health issue… besides, I'm pretty sure the school canteen is run by an outside company, not the school.
If Mr "I'm going to tell on my school to the ministry" thinks the cafeteria is bad now, maybe he should get a time machine and see the masses of junk food they were selling there 5 years ago. Oh, and while he's talking his good friend, the minister, maybe he could bring up things that are actually a problem — like the fact that they were meant to remove the 500 block from the school 2 years ago, or that the reliever, Sue Byrne, has been known to insult students and try to persuade them they have mental health issues when they clearly don't.
I'd be interested in following up your concerns about Sue Byrne, who in my opinion is a very nice reliever. If you could please email more information to [email protected], that would be much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Hang on, let me just get my time machine