Healthy snacks for school

Mealtimes provide a great opportunity to load your kids’ plates up with foods that pack a nutritional punch – but don’t discount the value of snack time either. 

In fact, when you consider research shows that snacks typically provide around a quarter of young children’s daily energy intake, what they munch on between meals suddenly becomes more important than ever. 

Healthy snacks for kids

“The best snack suggestions will always involve fruit and vegetables,” says dietitian Shadia Djakovic, senior project manager for schools and community at the Healthy Kids Association. 

Wholegrains and healthy sources of protein make good choices, too. 

“And a good rule of thumb for any lunchbox snack is the less processed, the better,” says Djakovic.

Some ideas include:

• Vegetable sticks with hummus
  Kids are more likely to eat fresh produce when it’s sliced into bite-sized pieces than when it’s served whole. And hummus is a great source of protein for extra nutrition and to satisfy hunger for longer.
• A hard-boiled egg
  Not only are they jam-packed with minerals and vitamins, eggs come complete with their own ‘packaging’ which you can ‘dress up’, by drawing a picture or writing a message on the shell, to bump up the fun factor
• Fresh fruit
  “Put a squeeze of lemon juice on any fruit that you’ve cut up, to avoid it going brown,” says Djakovic. “And wrap fresh strawberries in paper towel to keep them dry, which prevents them from spoiling too quickly."
• Air-popped popcorn
  It’s a fun food that delivers a hit of whole grains and polyphenols, the same antioxidants found in green tea and chocolate. Pop your own kernels at home to keep the cost down and avoid added flavourings, salt or sugar
• A tub of yoghurt
  “Choose between plain or flavoured yoghurt, making sure any flavoured yoghurt you buy also contains added fruit,” says Djakovic. “To keep perishable snack foods cool, pack a frozen 99-per-cent fruit-juice popper or water bottle in the lunch bag or box."
• Caramel rice puff bars
  Easy to make and a perfect refined-sugar free alternative to the packaged equivalent on supermarket shelves

Tips for the lunchbox

It’s one thing packing your kids’ lunchboxes with tasty, healthy snacks, but there are also some tricks to increase the likelihood that they’ll eat them.

1. 1. Choose clever combos 
   “Combine snack foods that you know your children love with those that they find more challenging to eat to make them more appealing,” says Djakovic
2. 2. Don’t force healthy snacks to compete for attention
   Kids are significantly less likely to eat the veggie sticks if there’s a sweet treat like chocolate sitting next to them in the lunchbox. So, pick and pack your snack mates wisely
3. 3. Be creative
   “Children really do eat with their eyes,” says Djakovic. “Make the effort to combine different coloured fruits and vegetables, cut them into interesting shapes and give them fun names.”
   
   For example, broccoli florets could be ‘tasty tiny tree tops’, celery sticks might be ‘celery swords’ and chopped cauliflower could become ‘cauliflower clouds’