Healthy Snack Ideas for the Classroom
Arizona has passed an Act that, effective at the start of the 2026-2027 school year, is the Arizona Healthy Schools Act A.R.S. 15-242.01, prohibits public schools participating in federally funded or assisted meal programs from serving, selling, or allowing a third party to sell ultra-processed food on the school campus during the regular school day.
So, in a nutshell, the Arizona Healthy Schools Act prohibits schools from serving, selling, or allowing a third party to sell ultra-processed food on the school campus during the regular school day. This is a great step to helping our students make healthier choices, but it will take some getting used to. I’m sure Arizona isn’t the first to have standards like this, so you may be in the same boat as us so hopefully you will find this helpful as well or even if you’re just looking for some healthier class snack options.
We all know that it will be an adjustment that we will now need to make changes to our in-class birthday celebrations, reward systems if you use any type of food as a reward, whole-class rewards/parties, holiday parties, if your PTO sells items at lunch, even my literacy snacks.
The guidelines define ultra-processed foods as those with the following eleven ingredients:
potassium bromate;
propylparaben;
titanium dioxide;
brominated vegetable oil;
yellow dye 5 or 6;
blue dye 1 or 2;
green dye 3; or
red dye 3 or 40.
To help, I’ve made a list of 30 different items that adhere to the guidelines as listed above. We know that ingredients are always changing, so always be sure to double-check to make sure there have not been any changes. The snack ideas can be used as birthday treats or rewards in the classroom.
There are a ton of additional ideas that would work in the classroom, but this at least is something that can be quickly referred to if you’re looking for ideas, or this would be a great option to send home to your class as a list of items that can be sent in as birthday treats.
Click the green box below to download the free printable list of packaged snacks.
I hope this will be helpful to you to use in your classroom this year!
Jenette
