Healthy Snacking at Beijing World Youth Academy
Students at Beijing World Youth Academy
Considering that China faces surging rates of obesity and diabetes, we at Dali Bar have often been concerned at seeing the large number of sweets shops clustered around the gates of local schools. During lunch hours and after school lets out schoolchildren flock to these shops for sugary snacks packed with highly processed and artificial ingredients. Joining the shops in pushing junk food are phalanxes of cart vendors selling deep-fried snacks.
When we launched Dali Bar energy bars in October of 2013, we envisioned them not only as an energy source for active people, but also as a less-sugary alternative snack for kids that would provide their growing bodies with important nutrients like omega fatty acids, fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. We were therefore thrilled to connect a few months back with Beijing World Youth Academy (BWYA), a top quality international school in China’s capital. We soon learned that staff there shared many of our concerns about kids’ snacking habits.
In 2013 BWYA expanded its primary school to include younger children, which prompted thinking and discussion among teachers and administrators about the food offerings available to these children, according to Phoebe Storm Gluyas, who works for the BWYA primary school.
“This year we opened grades three and four and in the future will be opening more, younger primary school grades. We realized that the younger kids needed help in making better decisions towards their health and decided that a revamp of our school lunches and tuck-shop were in order.”
To revamp school lunches BWYA decided to cancel contracts with some suppliers and add two new suppliers, Obentos and Gung Ho! Pizza. Both businesses are known to Beijing denizens for a focus on healthy and fresh ingredients. Gung Ho even has an in-house “Green Team” and Environmental Manager position dedicated specifically to sustainability and health. These new suppliers provide the kids at BWYA with lunches much higher than before in fresh vegetables, meat and whole grains and lower in fat and processed grains.
Changing up BWYA’s school store involved removing sugary and processed snacks like “cookies, chips, instant noodles and fruit-flavored beverages,” says Gluyas. They replaced them with seaweed snacks, raisins, fruit and nuts, as well as Dali Bars. For beverages, the store now stocks only water or pure fruit juice.
Healthy snacks on display at the Beijing World Youth Academy school store
BWYA has also found creative ways to make these healthy snacks fun for the kids instead of a chore. “Of course, the students would love to eat candy bars and cookies all day,” says Gluyas. “But we have supported the food change with more education about why we need to make healthy choices and the kids have reacted well to our program. We have a huge chart where they can choose stickers of the fruit and vegetables they have eaten that day to put next to their names. They have begun to compete with each other over who can be the healthiest.”
Equally important for BWYA, “Parents love the changes in the menu,” says Gluyas. “It is great for parents to be able to relax in the knowledge that if they don’t have time to make lunch, their child will be able to choose from a great selection of lunches and snacks.”
We salute BYWA for its commitment to providing nutritious foods to its students. In partnership with other similarly progressive schools, Dali Bar hopes to offer children throughout the country a hip and healthy alternative to junk food.
