School canteens are not making the grade when it comes to providing healthy food options, according to dietitian Cara Aprile.
Give children $10 at the canteen and they're not likely to choose the salad when there's a pie on offer.
"School canteens in Australia, they're underfunded, understaffed. So unfortunately due to a lack of resources [they] aren't necessarily able to provide the most nutritious meals for children," Ms Aprile said.
The Queensland-based mum is the founder and chief executive of school lunch delivery service Lilly's Little Lunchbox, which is launching in Canberra on Wednesday.
Despite the cost-of-living pressures and climbing grocery bills, she and partner Chris Heydon are confident there is a pent-up demand for healthy, pre-made lunchboxes for children in the capital.
"It can be quite overwhelming knowing what to put in a child's lunchbox, especially when they've got fussy eaters so that's where we can help support parents on their journey with their kids to providing healthy meals for their little ones," she said.
"It is easy to just to throw in a packet of chips or something that's easy where they don't have to prepare anything as opposed to providing the fruit vegetables or healthy meals for the day."
Named after Ms Aprile's 10-year-old daughter, the boxes will be made in Brisbane and delivered to Canberra on Mondays.
The menu includes falafels, meatballs, zucchini slice and sandwiches, accompanied by fruit, vegetable sticks and sweets. The boxes are packaged in recyclable plastic - a trial of compostable packaging found the shelf life was not long enough.
The subscription costs $261 for 20 boxes, which works out to be $13.05 per meal. Sandwich and wrap boxes cost $10 each.
"Parents preparing it themselves will find that they're spending close to that anyway or not providing enough food and enough nutritious, quality food for their kids, which is becoming more and more important for parents these days," Mr Heydon said.
He said the business was keen to be part of the ACT Education Directorate's rollout of free meals in public schools.
A trial will start in Term 3 where five schools will offer free breakfast and lunch, three days per week.
Mr Heydon said Lilly's Little Lunchboxes delivers directly to some schools in Queensland and so could be involved in the ACT government policy.
Britany Durand and Ben Sainsbury are expecting their first child soon and would consider signing up to the service.
"We've always been into the Youfoodz and all the other kind of meal delivery things for convenience. So now that this is coming to Canberra could definitely be something we'd consider," Ms Durand said.
"I think the biggest thing is it takes away the stress of preparing meals and you can spend your time doing other things with your family. That's probably the biggest perk I see out of it."
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