31 May 2012

High priced school canteens reducing kids to eating garlic bread?

| Myles Peterson
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An anonymous emailer has informed CanberraLeaks that prices at the school canteens at some Canberra public-schools have risen to such ridiculous levels, many children can only afford to buy the very basics. Apparently garlic bread is a popular staple.

Minister Andrew Barr this morning addressed the issue via twitter, as did Minister Joy Burch:

@ABarrMLA: @MylesPeterson Canteens run by volunteers. Minister Bourke is working with the p&c on the issue: http://www.actparents.org.au/2012/05/meeting-with-etd-help-for-canteens/

@JoyBurchMLA: @MylesPeterson @reijin64 @ABarrMLA canteens are for schools not for profits. happy to talk with Ed minister

What are rioters experiences? Are you a member of a P & C with views on the issue or a student affected by the pricing? Are you a teacher or education bureaucrat with background knowledge?

Background

Hi Rioters

Over the next few months we’re going to try and do our bit for the ACT community by bringing issues of waste and corruption to attention. For now we’ll be using Hushmail to source leads, but moving forward myself and a small team of interested people would like to turn CanberraLeaks into a regular and reliable local watchdog.

If you would like an issue investigated or have information or evidence of waste and/or corruption, please email canberraleaks@hushmail.com. Please supply as little identifying information as possible, we’re not interested in who you are, just what you want to bring to light.

We are also not interested in the activities of individuals.. This isn’t about bringing down tall-poppies, it’s about cleaning up our town.

Cheers

Myles Peterson for CanberraLeaks

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If not for use with externally purchased cup-a-noodles, why did the canteen sell cup-of-boiling water?

When I was in high school not too long ago, 4-5 years maybe? I used to bring my own 2 minute noodles and then buy a cup of boiled water from the canteen. I thought we had a good little system going but they stopped letting me do it when they realised I wasn’t buying their cuppanoodles. >:( Pricks.

And at college the prices were a lot higher, but by that stage, dealing with 17-18 year olds it’s fair enough to expect them to sort out their own lunches.

Icepoet said :

Ok, I’ll admit it. I couldn’t resist a stickybeak at what kids are being offered at the school canteen these days.

Bottom left on the 1st page of the Canberra High Menu – ‘Garlic Bread $1’

So don’t fret – it is there. The kids won’t starve.

Kids at Harrison School have it easier. Only $0.50 for garlic bread!

http://www.harrison.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/201751/Canteen_menu_Winter_Terms_2_and_3.pdf

I had a look at some of these menus, and health food it ain’t, mostly. One of them is offering pasta carbonara. Honestly, it’s the most fat and salt laden pasta you can have. How about a pasta with a tomato based sauce instead? I’d suggest there would be no difference in time or cost to produce and would be so much better. I thought the prices seemed ok and the menus are there to appeal to the teens, such as chicken burgers. If my kid wasn’t 26 years old and living in Shanghai, I’d have no problem with a canteen lunch as a once a week option, which is the regime we had in the dim dark days of his adolescence.

As for the headline, kids being ‘reduced to eating garlic bread’, I reckon about 90% of them would love to eat garlic bread and would be blowing off the fruit to do so. Johnboy, if that was you just being provocative, it worked for me. 🙂 Oh, the inhumanity of kids being forced so low…

Sandman said :

Those prices look about right to me. Perhaps the problem lies more in the parents who are spending money on smokes and grog , not bothering to provide their kids with decent homemade food and forcing the kids to spend their own pocket money on lunch. Either that or the kids are eating light and pocketing the rest of the money for their own smokes/grog.

You forgot to mention that the parents arent spending their own money, they are spending our taxpayers money given that, naturally, all kids who eat canteen lunches come from homes supported by the dole, or disability, or single parent pensions. Including those at St Eddies

Those prices look about right to me. Perhaps the problem lies more in the parents who are spending money on smokes and grog , not bothering to provide their kids with decent homemade food and forcing the kids to spend their own pocket money on lunch. Either that or the kids are eating light and pocketing the rest of the money for their own smokes/grog.

ghughes said :

Things must be tough – Myles can’t even afford google….
Canberra High School
http://www.canberrahs.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/194855/Canteen_menu_Feb_2012.pdf

St Edmunds
http://www.stedmunds.act.edu.au/pages/images/Canteen2012.pdf

Kaleen Primary
http://www.kaleenps.act.edu.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0012/198498/canteen_Final_menu_T1_12.docx

Giralang Primary
http://www.giralangps.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/200235/2012-Winter_Menu.pdf

But I am still yet to find garlic bread on the menu.

Guess I will have to keep making garlic bread at home.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I couldn’t resist a stickybeak at what kids are being offered at the school canteen these days.

Bottom left on the 1st page of the Canberra High Menu – ‘Garlic Bread $1’

So don’t fret – it is there. The kids won’t starve.

Myles Peterson8:22 pm 31 May 12

Wow this takes me back, I feel like I’m watching an episode of Behind The News.

Yeah, it’s a bit amateur hour at the moment, but everything has to start somewhere. Wanted to get something going quickly rather than just rant at Twitter about the definition of “Judicial Authority.”

I misjudged the RA reaction, was hoping for more input, but when working at The Crimes I was always surprised by what caught fire and what sunk without a trace. You never can tell what will resonate unless you try, which is, of course, directly proportional to what really is an issue.

A few things have been occurring in the background and a full write-up is coming. Much of the evidence so far suggests there is an issue.

Is hunting down canteen prices really worth being associated with an organisation with the word “Leaks” in its name, given that we’re in Canberra; home of the security-clearance-to-tie-your-shoes?

AFP and ASIO are aware of who am I and probably have me filed in the “annoying, but harmless” category. There have been run-ins with the former in the past. It was an AFP Detective Sergeant who suggested I take up writing, possibly in jest, and I thank him for it. The latter reemed me hard for my Cabinet-in-Confidence clearance. Despite having custodianship of Federal Cabinet papers in a former position (many of which I read), I have never revealed their contents and never will – I think that works in my favour.

The idea of CanberraLeaks is to provide a small-scale local outlet for information of a sensitive nature. Many of us have been privy to examples of corruption and waste, but for the sake of job security (or just sanity) have chosen to bite our tongues.

What most don’t know is that CanberraLeaks was a week from going live as an info-gathering tool for The Crimes. My idea, their resources. I fell out with management over security issues and wanted more credit for the concept than they were prepared to offer. My fall from grace at the paper can be traced to those events, along with a few other issues that have legal implications, so I won’t go into them now.

Thanks for taking an interest, good or bad, it’s all ultimately good. Personally, I’m excited every time I open the email. You never know what may turn and where it will lead.

Stuff and nonsense. Since when was canteen food anything but a luxury for schoolkids?

Brown bread sandwiches x 2, cheese & tomato – home-made cost $1.00 each.
Piece of fruit in season: 40c
Home-made Anzac biscuit: 20c.

$2.60 for a full lunch. Smaller kids: just one sandwich.

Wikileaks- Diplomatic Cables and Intelligence Analysis Reports.
CanberraLeaks- Fat kids can’t afford a Pizza Rounda and a chocolate moove.

Is hunting down canteen prices really worth being associated with an organisation with the word “Leaks” in its name, given that we’re in Canberra; home of the security-clearance-to-tie-your-shoes?

screaming banshee7:10 pm 31 May 12

Wow this takes me back, I feel like I’m watching an episode of Behind The News.

It would aid discussion to have some examples provided. surely a little darling can use a smartphone to snap a photo of a pricelist.

Garlic bread? Hardly. A few years ago it was reported that schoolkids in Sydney were finding the healthy food at their canteens such a turn-off they were using their mobiles to phone Dominos and Pizza Hut and getting pizzas driven in during lunch hour.

I don’t think the prices at school canteens are an issue. More like the fare being offered. Oh and I wonder where the two Coke machines which were a feature in the canteen when I was at Melrose High in the 1970s went to? No sign of them anywhere when I went back for the reunion and open day two years ago.

As society’s standard moves more to two-income families, so do stay-at-home mums disappear. The free workforce of tuckshop mums just ain’t there any more.

Thus, school canteens are increasingly run as businesses. At least one person is making a living out of it. Sure, prices are up a bit, but they still compare favourably with pretty much everywhere else.

Things must be tough – Myles can’t even afford google….
Canberra High School
http://www.canberrahs.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/194855/Canteen_menu_Feb_2012.pdf

St Edmunds
http://www.stedmunds.act.edu.au/pages/images/Canteen2012.pdf

Kaleen Primary
http://www.kaleenps.act.edu.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0012/198498/canteen_Final_menu_T1_12.docx

Giralang Primary
http://www.giralangps.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/200235/2012-Winter_Menu.pdf

But I am still yet to find garlic bread on the menu.

Guess I will have to keep making garlic bread at home.

devils_advocate1:49 pm 31 May 12

Dilandach said :

“Its not that I don’t like the sandwiches but could I have something other than just butter?”

I LOL’d.

Unlike the proles I used to get sick of the daily bread and hit up the canteen for lunch. The fact that they banned ‘junk’ food make them pretty much useless. I didn’t get it every day but much like at home the option was there. Kids spend far more energy than adults so why make them eat like one.
Do you thinly footballers eat a sandwich before a big game or something more filling.

Roadrage77 said :

Kids will always spend a minimum on food to free up funds for more important things like phone credit or a new flat-brimmed cap.

The recent fashion of flat (like, really really flat) brimmed hats (often with the stick still on, WTF?) is interesting to me, as I recall during my high school years caps were in fashion for a while. The fashion then was to have the brim bent into the perfect curve. Basically the opposite to the current fad.

I took lunch to school every day from kindy to Yr.12, made by my parents or myself when older. I ate at the canteen when I started earning my own cash in Yr.11.

Consumer choice, vote with your feet

Kids will always spend a minimum on food to free up funds for more important things like phone credit or a new flat-brimmed cap.

When I was at school my budget lunch of choice was a bread roll from the bakery laced with a potato scallop and a bit of tomato sauce from the greasy spoon. Total cost was under a buck in 1994 money. The money I saved went to Metro in Woden via their pinnies.

I am less than impressed by some of the rubbish sold at my son’s school canteen. Having said that, it runs on donations and the smell of an oily rag so probably doing the best it can. I’d be happy if it was done away with entirely but the reality is there will always be students who, for a variety of reasons, do not have lunch and will go hungry if the canteen isn’t available to them.

Myles Peterson12:12 pm 31 May 12

“How can we be expected to comment without knowing what the prices are?”

@cheap: Good point. That’s what we’re trying to find out. Fact finding mission ATM crowdsouring info from RA and other areas. Any help appreciated. Full write-up to follow.

@critics: While it may not be an issue for you, there’s plenty of kids who, for whatever reason, have limited access to nutrition. The school canteen can be a badly needed last resort. This is our first cab of the ranks. Hopefully we’ll get better at drawing attention to an issue you care about in the near future – a lot faster if you help.

chewy14 said :

C’mon Mum,

make me a sammich.

In grade 3 I had to make lunch before school for my brother who was in kindergarten. Apparently after a few weeks my brother went to my mother and said “Its not that I don’t like the sandwiches but could I have something other than just butter?”

colourful sydney racing identity11:44 am 31 May 12

Dilandach said :

With Dil Jr, canteen is a treat. Once a fortnight if he’s good.

What lazy ass parent hands their kids a few coins and push them to the canteen? Making a lunch isn’t hard.

this. end thread.

C’mon Mum,

make me a sammich.

How can we be expected to comment without knowing what the prices are?

I was always jealous of kids who got tuck-shop when I was at school and high-school. To be honest, my hard-working parents just couldn’t afford it .. so I was forced to bring lunch from home.

Oh the humanity, I’m still dealing with the humilation now.

Cry babies .. it takes 5 minutes to pack a lunch. Harden up.

Agree with the above posters, send a packed lunch and know what your child is (and isn’t) eating. It takes 5 mins and only slightly more planning than having the cash available for a lunch order. I heard on the child grapevine that the garlic bread IS very popular – the way I hear it, it has nothing to do with the price and everything to do with the taste.

Dilandach said :

With Dil Jr, canteen is a treat. Once a fortnight if he’s good.

What lazy ass parent hands their kids a few coins and push them to the canteen? Making a lunch isn’t hard.

+1.

Wish the canteen had garlic bread when I was at school.

Jim Jones said :

Dilandach said :

With Dil Jr, canteen is a treat. Once a fortnight if he’s good.

What lazy ass parent hands their kids a few coins and push them to the canteen? Making a lunch isn’t hard.

+1

+1 We pack up lunches as we make dinner the night before. Takes at most 2mins.

The P&C Council is saying that there are loads of school canteens going to the wall. Presumably exorbitant pricing is some people’s attempt to keep it afloat.

At our school the canteen manages ok and the prices, while certainly not cheap, aren’t ridiculous. My kids get one lunch order a term, because it’s at least $10 for the two. That isn’t everyday pricing! But given that it’s mostly junk food anyway that’s really not a drama.

At any rate, making a sarnie would still be cheaper than buying even garlic bread.

Dilandach said :

With Dil Jr, canteen is a treat. Once a fortnight if he’s good.

What lazy ass parent hands their kids a few coins and push them to the canteen? Making a lunch isn’t hard.

+1

VYBerlinaV8_is_back11:11 am 31 May 12

What a beat-up. Bring a sandwich.

With Dil Jr, canteen is a treat. Once a fortnight if he’s good.

What lazy ass parent hands their kids a few coins and push them to the canteen? Making a lunch isn’t hard.

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