Healthy Eating Policy

⚠️ SAFETY-CRITICAL POLICY — REQUIRES HUMAN SIGN-OFF BEFORE USE This policy contains life-critical allergy-management provisions for young children. Before it is published or relied upon, Al Fajer Private School leadership must: (1) fill every [NEEDS AFS INPUT] placeholder, (2) confirm the school's allergy stance (nut-free campus) and its lunch/catering arrangements, and (3) formally adopt it with real dates. Nothing in this document has been invented to fill those gaps.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Lunches & Snacks
3. Nut Allergies — Nut-Free Campus
4. Healthy Eating

1.0 Introduction

1.1 A healthy, balanced diet makes an important contribution to children's growth and development, to their educational performance and attainment, and to their long-term health and well-being. The relationship between poor health, nutrition, and low school achievement is well documented. Al Fajer Private School promotes a "whole-school" approach to healthy eating and requires that all food and drinks provided in the school setting meet nutritional standards — this includes food and drink available in the school cafeteria.

1.2 School leaders and the school's lunch provider [NEEDS AFS INPUT: AFS lunch arrangements/caterer] must work together, and in consultation with parents, to ensure that consistent messages about healthy eating are given to our children. The school adopts a whole-school approach to all food provided.

2.0 Lunches and Snacks

2.1 We ask that children do not bring the following in their lunchboxes: candy, lollipops, sugary cereals, sugary cookies, chocolate bars, chips, fast food, flavored milks (strawberry/chocolate), energy drinks, sugary juice drinks, or any soda/carbonated drinks. Water bottles should contain water only. Lunch should not contain more than 2 portions of deep-fried, battered, or breaded food per week.

2.2 We are happy to allow children to bring one small treat (a plain cupcake or a plain cookie, for example) to eat at the second break on a Thursday, but the child should eat their healthy option first.

2.3 On PE days, students should bring an additional healthy snack in order to sustain their energy.

3.0 Nut Allergies — Nut-Free Campus

This section is life-critical. For some children, exposure to even trace amounts of nuts — through contact or smell — can cause a dangerous, potentially life-threatening reaction.

3.1 To protect students with severe nut allergies, the school operates a "no nuts" approach: we ask that no peanuts or tree nuts be brought into our school. Foods sent in for snack, lunch, or any class event (including parties, field trips, etc.) should be carefully checked to make sure they are peanut/tree-nut-free. [NEEDS AFS INPUT: confirm AFS's allergy stance — the nut-free-campus rule is carried over from the source policy and must be formally confirmed (or amended) by AFS leadership and the School Nurse]

3.2 Families can help ensure that our school stays peanut/tree-nut-free by reading packaging labels and reminding children not to share food with other children at school. While our goal is to provide a peanut-free campus, we understand that this is a significant undertaking.

3.3 With your cooperation we can drastically diminish the possibility of a child having a dangerous reaction due to coming into contact with, or smelling, nuts. Students with diagnosed allergies have individual health care plans — see the First Aid Policy.

3.4 For your reference, we have compiled a list of items that must not be brought into school, along with ideas for peanut/tree-nut-free lunches, snacks, and treats. We appreciate your cooperation with this policy — the sacrifice of not having nuts or nut products in our school is a small one compared to the consequences faced by a child with severe allergies.

3.5 Please do not send any of the following to school:

• 3.5.1 Peanut butter or any other nut butter, including crackers with peanut-butter filling, and chocolate-nut spreads
• 3.5.2 Any granola/muesli bars, cookies, or other products that list nuts as an ingredient
• 3.5.3 Trail mixes with nuts, granola bars with nuts, or dried fruit with nuts
• 3.5.4 Cereals containing nuts
• 3.5.5 Nuts in salads
• 3.5.6 Candy or cookies containing nuts
• 3.5.7 Loose nuts of any kind (peanuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts, mixed nuts, pecans, pistachios, etc.)
• 3.5.8 All nut pastes (e.g., almond paste)
• 3.5.9 Almond milk

3.6 Please read the labels:

• 3.6.1 Please make sure that you always check the labels on the food you are sending to school.
  • 3.6.1.1 If the label says the food contains peanuts or traces of nuts, consider it a banned item. Remember — manufacturing processes change, so a food that was safe may not continue to be so. It is still important to read the ingredient label each time you purchase a food.
  • 3.6.1.2 If the label says "May contain peanuts or tree nuts," it should not be brought into the school. (For example, some granola bars carry a "may contain traces of peanuts" warning even when nuts are not listed in the ingredients.)

Example lunchbox ideas — allowed snacks & treats:

• Yogurt — plain or mixed with fruit
• Applesauce
• Canned fruit in juice
• Vegetables with dip
• Fresh fruit
• Unsweetened cereal
• Soy butter (a nut-free spread alternative)
• Plain or whole-grain crackers
• Hard-boiled egg
• Bagel with cream cheese
• Low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese
• Saltine crackers
• Cheese or cheese sticks
• A small bag of popcorn (please avoid hard, small, round foods — including popcorn and whole grapes — for our youngest KG students, as they can pose a choking risk)

4.0 Healthy Eating

4.1 School lunches are provided by [NEEDS AFS INPUT: AFS lunch arrangements/caterer], with the menu agreed by the school leadership team so that it is healthy and balanced.

4.2 Where individual items are sold, the school's aim is that students are guided toward a balanced meal rather than unhealthy choices; the cafeteria offer is reviewed by the school leadership team. [NEEDS AFS INPUT: confirm how AFS lunch service operates — set balanced meals, individual-item sales, or both]

4.3 (A clause in the source policy about coffee-shop-style outlets and a juice bar has not been carried over: those were facilities of the source school's senior campus, and primary students were not permitted to use them. Any equivalent AFS food outlets should be listed here — [NEEDS AFS INPUT: AFS food outlets on campus, if any].)

4.4 Students are encouraged to eat a healthy, balanced breakfast before coming to school.