A sample of some of the breakfasts and lunches on offer to five Canberra schools this year. Photo: James Coleman
Once upon a time, in a land not too far away – about 50 km actually – a government got it right.
It did its research, got its sums right as best it could, and gave money to a cause that, wait for it, needed it.
Not a fancy cause, a basic one. One that we all thrive on or not on, one that borders on lifeblood.
Before you accuse me of pre-election/pro-Labor/any bias you like, I don’t live in this part of the world that votes for these folk – the ACT. I live next door, well in the next state, but am, and always will be, when it comes to politics, on the shelf – with the books.
So what is this piece of delicious remarkableness? Simple, really. Providing kids with a meal they wouldn’t normally receive. A good healthy meal that will help them grow and prosper. For the youngsters who have had to go without, it’s hardly been their fault, nor, mostly, that of their parents or carers, so let’s not blame anyone, and just say thank you.
Don’t know how long it took to work out that kids do better if they have a full belly first thing, or any time, really, but they clearly do. Also, by having specific stuff on the menu that everyone eats, it does away with all that competitiveness about who has more Vegemite, whether you’re gluten-free or just free or whether pineapple donuts really are bad for you. They are a fruit, you know.
Getting a bit hungry now wondering what gets rolled out at these free school meals – here’s hoping it’s not devon, unless there’s a bucket of tomato sauce nearby.
Our lunch money’s on the stuff that is good for you but doesn’t always taste that way. You know, green things – an exception to this rule, naturally, being spearmint leaves.
So, what’s really on the new menu this year for five ACT schools? Yoghurt cups, fruit and vegetable sticks, pies, savoury muffins, sandwiches, wraps and hash brown and egg parcels.
In the dark ages, our mums wrote on paper bags words like chips, lollies, and peanut butter sandwiches and, if you were fancy, a sausage roll complete with one of those plastic sachets of sauce that squirted you before it rolled over to drown the sausage. This bag with money sticky-taped to it went to the school canteen – or the bottom of the school bag if you were on a diet – and came back at lunchtime with, if you couldn’t avoid it, a bottle of milk which had been sitting in the sun since the cows came in.
That was lunch. Breakfast was what you had time for before the bus came. Something soggy in a bowl if you were lucky. More money to buy lollies at the shop before the bus arrived.
Definitely not on the new school menu … but can you remember how sweet they were? Photo: File.
We survived those crazy, hazy, lazy days when just the mention of a peanut butter sandwich brought you out in hives.
We didn’t seem to get sick, fat or thin; we were just about right.
Today, our children have so much more to deal with; that’s why it is so satisfying that one of the issues is being taken care of, at least until next year. The Meals in Schools program will provide students at five ACT public schools with access to free breakfast and lunch three days a week throughout the school year. Sure, it’s costing taxpayers $4 million a year but that seems money well devoured.
Clearly, it’s all worth celebrating, too, with fruit, of course. Does anyone have a Cherry Ripe?
Loading ...
