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Our canteen not only provides a valuable service to meet
the needs of parents and children who choose to purchase a
canteen lunch, but also provides healthy, nutritional lunches
for those children who may at times need our extra care.
Our school canteen manager, Anna Dal Forno, gives many, many
hours voluntarily and receives only a very small honorarium
each month as a thank-you for her commitment and dedication
to providing for the nutritional needs of our students. Anna
works tirelessly for many hours to ensure the canteen provides
an exemplary service three days a week for our small school
population of 130 students and kindergarten of 25 students.
This year, the canteen has been assessed by the City of Whitehorse
Health Department as a "5-Star Canteen".
Having completed the accredited Food Handling course, Anna
shares this knowledge with her volunteers and is diligent
about ensuring health standards are met and maintained at
all times, during special activities for the school, for food
stalls at our Harmony Fest, fundraising, sausage sizzles and
barbeques. Anna enthusiastically takes on the role of co-ordinator
for the food handling at these events to ensure requirements
are met for the Food Permit obtained from the Local Council.
Anna is always looking for new ideas to provide interesting
variety for inclusion in the healthy food lines offered in
the canteen. Anna often organises special food sampling days
to enable the students to provide their feedback through surveys.
Special food days throughout the year have included "Summer
Wraps" with healthy salads and Soup Days with Anna's wholesome
home-made soup. These special days, along with careful and
consistent monitoring of foods being purchased, orders and
expenditure, ensure that the canteen is run as a viable concern.
During the year, Anna has taken a leading role in establishing
a Working Party of School Council to submit applications for
grants and gain support and sponsorship of local business
and organisations to assist with the development of the school's
Community Eco-Garden. This project has involved students,
staff and parents in design and construction of vegetable
plots and plant propagation area. Vegetables grown in the
garden will be used in the school's canteen. Anna has also
made successful application for the Healthy Foods Grant to
gain funds to support this project and provide curriculum
resources to enhance the Healthy Foods Program.
Anna's genuine interest in each child at the school, the
time she takes to "have a chat" with them during their lunch
time break, along with the activities she organises to show
the children that their opinions about the food sold at the
canteen is genuinely valued, makes her a highly respected
member of our school community. Her active interest in school-life
at Nunawading is extended to promoting the school in the broader
community and gaining sponsorship support from local business.
I am both pleased and very proud to highly recommend Anna
for this award as a cheerful, energetic and extremely dedicated
Canteen Manager who continues to constantly work to ensure
an excellent service is provided for the school, to have a
positive influence on the eating habits of the children, and
to support the school in establishing a sustainable Eco-Garden
and Healthy Foods program.
- Principal
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