Te Puna School has its heart is in the right place, scooping up the prize for New Zealand's most 'terrific tuckshop' at the 2003 Children's Food Awards.

Tauranga's Te Puna School was announced today as the winner of the Terrific Tuckshop award at a presentation in Parliament's Grand Hall, presented by Richard Klein of the Slow Food Movement, an award it shared with Parawai School from Thames and the Rudolph Steiner schools.

Other winners included Harraways (Best Breakfast) and breast milk (Cleanest Greenest) while 'losers' included McDonalds, Starburst Fruitfuls, Coca Cola and Kraft 2Minute Noodles.

The Children's Food Awards were initiated by Green MP Sue Kedgley, who applauded Te Puna School's healthy food policy.

"We're very impressed that Te Puna School has taken this initiative to provide the students with healthy food and sincerely hope others will follow their lead," said Ms Kedgley, the Green Food Safety spokesperson.

Te Puna Principal Mike Scadden said the success of a carefully constructed tuckshop menu that is high in protein and low in sugar was plain to see since the school made the change eight years ago.

"Like most schools, we inherited a tuckshop designed more as a fundraiser," said Mr Scadden. As time has gone on we've headed into foods that are beneficial for learning, high protein and low carbohydrates. The brain relies on protein to fire well, so the earlier a child can eat a protein meal, the better it is throughout the day for learning."

Mr Scadden said the school encourages parents to adopt healthy-learning diets for their children at home, saying child behaviour can be "diabolical" with too much sugar.

Ms Kedgley wants to see healthy food policies such as the one adopted by Te Puna School becoming an integral part of every school's health policies.

"As a nation that must improve the food we eat, what better place to start than our schools?"

The New Zealand Children's Food Awards are supported by a diverse range of groups such as Plunket, 5+ A Day, the Maori Women's Welfare League and MAdGE. The award ceremony featured guest speakers champion runner Alison Roe and Dr Robyn Toomath from Fight the Obesity Epidemic.