Taste of change for canteens as students step behind counter

NATALIE CRAIG

Sunday Age, December 6, 2009

MEET the new canteen lady: 13-year-old Divya Patel, who dishes out bowls of cereal and frozen pineapple pieces, and patiently answers the preppies' eternal question: ''What can I buy with 50 cents?''

Divya and fellow year 6 student Bradley Lai, 11, are rostered on to work in Footscray Primary School's snack hut, which opened after the former canteen manager quit her business. ''It's fun,'' says Bradley. ''You do feel like a teacher … like, you have to work.''

Fortunately, Bradley and Divya are happy to chalk it up as experience, because the days of Mum and Grandma standing behind a metal grille serving pies and lollies are numbered.

The Victorian School Canteen Association says volunteer numbers are declining as time-poor parents drop out. Catering companies or students are increasingly filling the void.

Not that schools are rueing the change. Maribyrnong College hired caterers recently in a bid to lure students away from the takeaway shops at the Highpoint shopping centre across the road.

The school's business manager, Melissa Gramatakos, said the old canteen closed after running at a loss for more than a decade. A lack of steady volunteers meant the school had to hire canteen staff, and the food on offer was generally unhealthy.

Now, local cafe operator Bocca Foods pays the school about $1000 a month to cover utilities costs and for the privilege of serving gourmet grub at breakfast, recess, lunch and after school to 500 ravenous teenagers.

''How hard can it be to offer good-quality food at a reasonable price to a captive market?'' says Bocca manager Ross Montalti, laughing. But he admits the canteen is ''not making a lot of money'', with school holidays eating into profits.

At least the war on takeaway food has been won, says Ms Gramatakos, as burgers and pies have made way for low-fat Vietnamese rice-paper rolls and pesto pasta.

Students at Mentone Park Primary School are also eating more healthily after its old-style canteen closed five years ago. Deputy principal Perry Kick says that on the days the privately run canteen was open, there was more mess in the playground and children were more erratic.

''Kids would come into class and their tongues would be blue,'' he said. Parent volunteers decided instead to set up a Kids' Cafe, which uses produce from the school garden and runs every Friday in a colourful makeshift dining room. Dishes include ''super salad plates'' for $2 and ''right-on wraps'' for $3.50.

Mr Kick said parents preferred to be part of such projects, rather than volunteer to stand behind a grate all day in a traditional canteen.

Footscray Primary principal Jennie Droge said the snack hut impressed on students the importance of healthy eating and taught them skills such as managing time and staying cool under pressure.

Student-power is also harnessed at Kilbreda College in Mentone, where hospitality students manage a canteen open for breakfast, recess and lunch.

Parents are asked to volunteer for an hour only at lunchtime, while the students are responsible for bookkeeping, and ordering and preparing food. They also make cappuccinos and lattes for senior classmates.

''It's helping me so much,'' says Sarah Hughes, 16, who also works in a local cafe and wants to be a chef. Jo Hughes, Sarah's mother, works at the school at lunchtime and has been volunteering in canteens for more than 15 years, sometimes in the early days with Sarah nearby in a pram.

''The boys used to buy a buttered bun and put their sausage roll inside it,'' she recalls. ''Now it's come full circle. Sarah's doing the work and the food is healthy.''