13 March 2009

P&C Tuckshops calling it a day

| johnboy
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Way back when it made some sense for stay at home mums to go down and volunteer in the school tuck-shop at lunchtimes. They enjoyed the social aspects, the school could either make more money or lower prices, and parents could see what their kids were getting up to in school.

But in this modern era, where only the very wealthy can afford the luxury of mum staying home, the Canberra Times now reports that Parents and Citizens Associations have realised they can’t keep up the gig.

    ”The P&C council is actually considering whether we try talking to the Government about pulling out of running school canteens all together,” she said.

    ”Whether the provision of lunch is something the Government takes over is a question we are now asking ourselves.”

The rules have changed, and so must we.

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Yeah, that was it. We called it ‘bun loaf’ for some reason.

I liked that sliced raisen loaf, with pink icing along the top. Our tuckshop made special butter, I think it was of butter, copha and cream. Bloody nice, anyway.

I’m sorry to hear of all teh privatisation, no one seems to do anything nowadays, they just pay someone else to do it.

Grammar had an excellent uniform pool too, I think I had one new uniform the whole time I was there, the rest were from teh pool. Shoes too. This was run by the parents but maybe it’s gone too.

I remember that too, astro, apart from the young mum bit. Cream buns were all the rage when I was at high school. But at primary school you could get a vegemite crust for 1c and a slice of buttered iced bunloaf for 2c. They also sold frozen oranges.

We could buy 2 for 1c mixed lollies at the local Higgins shops which they’d put in little white paper bags. It was fun picking out each lolly! Except the clinkers were 2c each so you never chose too many of those. I always hoped I’d get the pink clinkers, but I sure got a lot of yellow and green ones.

i used to love the horsehoe rolls with butter and vegemite from the tuckshop in high school – and i am so bloody old i recall sausage rolls being three cents and pies five cents at the primary school i went to… remember the sunnyboys and razzs, too! used to have yellow text inside telling you you won a free one, or turquoise text telling you you’d won three free ones!!

we also had milk in a small bottle each morning at primary school, up to year four that i can recall (went to different school then) and many of the girls wouldn’t drink theirs so the boys would have milk races. i was pretty good! s’why i have strong bones now… ; )

i also have fond memories of the young-ish mothers of year seven kiddies when i was in year twelve, bending forward in summer frocks to delve into the canteen fridges for ice blocks with adolescent hormones peering in glee pretending to be waiting to pay with well-spent pocket money… it was a western sydney school and these mums were none too modest…

None of this replaces the buzz you feel as a little kid to see that special, loving face behind the canteen window.

As a first grader at Scullin school I can remember my whole day being tinged with the excitement that my mum was going to be there. I can even remember what I ordered: a packet of potato straws – my first grade favourite!

I think it’s sad that we’re losing this aspect of our culture.

Privatise, privatise, privatise! I know of a number of school canteens who have now outsourced their canteens to private companies and this seems to work really well – less hassle for school and parents! Some even offer online ordering, so parents can set up an account, use a credit card to top up the account and pre-order lunches online.

In other news, was walking past a childcare centre that was peanut and MINT free… kids are allergic to mint now too?! What is the world coming to??

No Felix, there is no cure (yet). There is no known cause (yet). It is a worldwide phenomenon, with different food allergies having higher/lower rates in different places.

We have 2 children – same genes, same gender, same food, same environment when growing up. The older one has an allergy to certain tree nuts. The younger one is allergy free. Therefore, you can probably rule out the age of parents as a definitive factor. The older one’s school class of 22 students has 4 students with food allergies of varying severity – almost 1 in 5!

How did we find out about the allergy? Via a skin prick test at a specialist’s rooms (administered as part of a routine visit to check out childhood eczema) and a medically supervised test at Canberra Hospital. The reaction is not imaginary and it is not pretty. How much set off the reaction? A piece of the offending nut about 2mm square.

Do we take precautions? Yes. Do we avoid going to certain restaurants with our children? Yes. Have we taught our child about avoiding the nuts? Yes. Do we fret about it constantly? No, because our friends understand, and our school (including the tuck shop) genuinely cares about the welfare of its students.

Do we care that others believe we are making it up? No, not really. I have never been bothered by imbeciles, and I don’t intend to start now.

Felix the Cat said :

Steady Eddie said :

Strange how we never heard about this so-called “peanut allergy” until around 15 years ago, about the time Today Tonight, A Current Affair and the other tabloid TV shows started up. What a coincidence! This so-called “peanut allergy” is in the same league as UFOs, ESP and faith healing.

+1
Peanut allergy never existed when I went to school. Seriously, how did it come about? Is it a worldwide thing? Is there a cure?

Yes, it did exist. But awareness was almost zero.

There’s a lot of kids who never got to be adults, because they had the allergy when it was not widely known about.

So they suffered a really horrible death.

As numbers with the allergy increased, so did awareness and efforts to do something about it, especially for kids who don’t realise they’re dying until well into it.

It’s not something we “invented” to annoy people, believe me.

I almost died while I was meant to be watching man walk on the moon, as some stupid mother at the house we had marched to to watch the moonwalk had given me a peanut butter sandwich. So I was turnign inside out and puffing up and turning blue and missed the whole thing.

I’m one of the few people born with peanut allergy in the 60s who made it to adulthood… many of the kids died as kids. They never made it. Peanut wasn’t a big part of our diet in the 50s. In the 60s it increased, and I was born with the allergy.

The effects get worse with each exposure. Eating can be russian roulette and I had an anaphalactyc reaction 30 kms from town one night, alone, because some split peas I had bought were evidently contaminated. I now have an epipen (actually I have two, as the effects wear off quite fast). It hopefully will enable me to get to a hospital. It doesn’t fix the problem, it just buys time.

Yes, I’m sure our very annoying and inconvenient allergy is really just fussy eaters with over-active imaginations. Much like those silly people who die of bee stings, they are probably just scared of bees or maybe just can’t handle a bit of pain.

It is quite scary that so many people seem to regard this as a trivial joke, I wonder how they can think that way?

Felix the Cat9:21 pm 13 Mar 09

Steady Eddie said :

Strange how we never heard about this so-called “peanut allergy” until around 15 years ago, about the time Today Tonight, A Current Affair and the other tabloid TV shows started up. What a coincidence! This so-called “peanut allergy” is in the same league as UFOs, ESP and faith healing.

+1
Peanut allergy never existed when I went to school. Seriously, how did it come about? Is it a worldwide thing? Is there a cure?

Clown Killer said :

My daugters school has no restrictions on nuts for kids bringing food from home but doesn’t sell any food containing nuts from the tuckshop.

In an excellent and perhaps somewhat refreshing approach the school believes that a kid old enough to go to pimary school must take personal responsibility for any life threatening condition that they have.

Try this scenario. Kid eats peanut butter sandwich then goes to the toilet after lunch pushing open the door and leaving peanut residue on door handle. Child with a severe peanut allergy goes to the toilet later on and gets residue on hands, as a result stops breathing within a few minutes. In our local school there are several kids with allergies of this severity. I won’t send Peanut products in my kids lunchbox, to do so is endangering the lives of other children. Its not as obvious as kids sharing food from others lunchboxes, the issue would be easy to manage if it was.

This so-called “peanut allergy” is in the same league as UFOs, ESP and faith healing.

It sounds like you have had very little experience with the subject matter. Try some research.

ant said :

at grammar, the lady who ran the tuckshop was paid, and she organised a roster of parents, and also the girls were rostered on, we all had our recess/lunch shifts serving. The mums worked a longer shift, buttering the bread, cutting things up, putting the sausage rolls in teh ovens etc.

5 years back, and since I started there in ’96 the Boarders Kitchen and Tuck shop (now moved to behind the boarders’ kitchen) is run by a private catering company. Weird story, a School friend and I came up with the idea in our Design & Tech class since it was in an awkward spot to begin with.

Back in public primary school, I loved the frozen flavoured milk… pity to see it go.

Clown Killer5:25 pm 13 Mar 09

Wait up, I’m getting my tin foil hat!

Steady Eddie5:13 pm 13 Mar 09

Strange how we never heard about this so-called “peanut allergy” until around 15 years ago, about the time Today Tonight, A Current Affair and the other tabloid TV shows started up. What a coincidence! This so-called “peanut allergy” is in the same league as UFOs, ESP and faith healing.

Clown Killer4:54 pm 13 Mar 09

My daugters school has no restrictions on nuts for kids bringing food from home but doesn’t sell any food containing nuts from the tuckshop.

In an excellent and perhaps somewhat refreshing approach the school believes that a kid old enough to go to pimary school must take personal responsibility for any life threatening condition that they have.

Going back to the OP, it’s interesting to speculate about what would happen to the range of foods available under a government-run tuck shop.

Would they introduce the same ticketing system the gov shopfronts have, with nice seating and a flat-screen tv for the comfort of children waiting on their sausage rolls, and a nice red LED sign advising how long the wait is for service, so kids could pop over to the library for a few extra minutes of study?

Or who they might sub-contract to. Macca’s have so many tentacles in the lives of our children anyway, it’s not hard to imagine them taking over school lunches.

PreciousLilywhite4:20 pm 13 Mar 09

whoops, there should be signage…

PreciousLilywhite4:19 pm 13 Mar 09

For the record, I’m all for not having peanuts at schools and I think their should be signage at cafes & clubs.

It seems that anyone inconvenienced by the need to prevent peanut allergics from being exposed to peanut seems to feel that peanut allergy is people being fussy eaters or something.

So, who would like to go to a restaurant that used Strychnine in a lot of its food, and probably had traces of it on their bowls, knives, and chopping boards? That’d be OK, wouldn’t it? Stop being so fussy! You’d barely be able to taste it. I’m sure it’s not THAT bad.

Only to a peanut allergic, the death by peanut is somewhat faster, messier and violent.

We really are turning into a very ignorant and selfish society.

Notice how you just jumped into a fit when I mentioned the word peanut? Thanks Furry Jesus, you just neatly demonstrated my point. Im not a sceptic, just saying it like it is.

What’s the ‘…like it is…’ that you’re just saying – that people make a lot of noise about peanuts in schools? I ‘jumped into a fit’ because my child nearly died on the very first opportunity we had to learn that she was allergic. The number of times I’ve heard people treat those of us who ACTUALLY live with this problem, who have to be vigilant about peanuts, as if we’re overprotective or over-reactive makes me rather prone to fit-jumping. Would I be fit-jumping if I jumped at the word ‘arsenic’ or ‘assault rifle’ or ‘red-bellied black snake’ if someone said there was nothing wrong with bringing these to school?

And Steady Eddie of ‘so-called peanut allergy’ fame, are you just trying to put the dick back into ‘medical degree’? What would you call a small amount? because the amount that nearly killed my daughter was small enough not to be visible to the naked eye.

But by all means, please go on treating us like we’re a bunch of idiots who choose to read every single food label before we buy because we want the eye-strain, who insist on interrogating chefs about their ingredients whenever we eat out because it’s fun, who enjoy driving our friends mad at kids’ birthday parties…

PreciousLilywhite3:24 pm 13 Mar 09

“Yawn. Another peanut allergy skeptic. Hope you never find yourself in Emergency with an unconscious 4yo on your lap.”

Yawn yourself. Notice how you just jumped into a fit when I mentioned the word peanut? Thanks Furry Jesus, you just neatly demonstrated my point.
Im not a sceptic, just saying it like it is.

Steady Eddie3:01 pm 13 Mar 09

Furry Jesus said :

PreciousLilywhite said :

I think you’d all be surprised at how much tuck shops have changed.
No more pies, sausage rolls or even flavoured milk.
Its all fruit, fruit juice, multigrain sandwiches & soup if you want something hot. And don’t even mention the word ‘peanut’ lest you send someone into some sort of fit.

Yawn. Another peanut allergy skeptic. Hope you never find yourself in Emergency with an unconscious 4yo on your lap.

Don’t know how many school lunch order lists you’ve been looking at lately, but I’ve had access to 3 schools’ versions in the last few months for the little Jesi (Chocolate and Pikachu), and pies, sausgae rolls, mini-pizzas, chips, flavoured milk, fruit ‘juices’ are all still there, presumably for parents who don’t know any better themselves.

The cure for this so-called “peanut allegy” is to keep feeding the kid peanuts until they get immune to them. Start off with small amounts then steadily increase it until the kid doesn’t react anymore.

caf said :

What about carob buds and fruit balls?? Say it ain’t so…

Fruit balls where the goods. I can remember getting 50 for 50 cents one day and I was like the king of the school that lunch time.

I still remember they used to tell us carob buds were chocolate!

PreciousLilywhite said :

I think you’d all be surprised at how much tuck shops have changed.
No more pies, sausage rolls or even flavoured milk.
Its all fruit, fruit juice, multigrain sandwiches & soup if you want something hot. And don’t even mention the word ‘peanut’ lest you send someone into some sort of fit.

Yawn. Another peanut allergy skeptic. Hope you never find yourself in Emergency with an unconscious 4yo on your lap.

Don’t know how many school lunch order lists you’ve been looking at lately, but I’ve had access to 3 schools’ versions in the last few months for the little Jesi (Chocolate and Pikachu), and pies, sausgae rolls, mini-pizzas, chips, flavoured milk, fruit ‘juices’ are all still there, presumably for parents who don’t know any better themselves.

Ruby Wednesday2:34 pm 13 Mar 09

My primary school had the parents donate the food as well as staff it. It was open three days a week, and once a week I would be given a giant Tupperware container full of pikelets to drop off at the tuckshop.

This was in rural Queensland. At high school, we had the ordering system for special hot food (brown paper bag with money stickytaped on) and mothers, supervised by a paid tuckshop convenor, did all the serving and whatnot at break times.

A sausage roll and a chocolate Breaka was my standard lunch, so this was clearly before the healthy times rolled around!

PreciousLilywhite2:08 pm 13 Mar 09

Im sure the canteen would make a hot single mum/single dad Brady Bunch Lunch dating scene.

colourful sydney racing identity1:57 pm 13 Mar 09

I went along to help at my daughters school canteen – took time off work to do it. THe woman running the canteen told me she had never, in her 10 years there, had a man come to help.

So the days of little kids being fleeced by bigger kids (“Trade you this 50c coin for that $2 one, mine’s bigger so its worth more”) or anybody asking “How many lollies can I get for dis much monies?” are gone?

OH NOES!

So there’ll be a whole generation who will never know the meaning of ‘tuckshop lady arms’.

Probably a good thing. They are gross.

What about carob buds and fruit balls?? Say it ain’t so…

PreciousLilywhite12:35 pm 13 Mar 09

I think you’d all be surprised at how much tuck shops have changed.
No more pies, sausage rolls or even flavoured milk.
Its all fruit, fruit juice, multigrain sandwiches & soup if you want something hot. And don’t even mention the word ‘peanut’ lest you send someone into some sort of fit.
Apparently, the kids don’t mind it though.
I’ve always thought that the schools should provide a simple lunch…but then again I’ve always thought that parents should pay school fees too.

At my school we had ‘lunch orders’ where you wrote what you wanted on a paper bag, and put the money in it, and they were collected early by a fish and chip shop, and a box of lunches was dropped back at lunchtime.

So kids can still get food if there is nothing in the house before school, without parents having to turn up as free labour.

at grammar, the lady who ran the tuckshop was paid, and she organised a roster of parents, and also the girls were rostered on, we all had our recess/lunch shifts serving. The mums worked a longer shift, buttering the bread, cutting things up, putting the sausage rolls in teh ovens etc.

Or pull the plug on canteens altogether and let lunchboxes rule the day.

School canteens can provide significant opportunities for parents to get to know each other and build up peer networks. These can be vital for families needing help with their children, e.g. sharing the burden of transport to weekend sport, emergency after-school child-minding, having someone to support you when school-friends reach their adolescence and start lying to their parents about whose place they’re sleeping over at…Can’t see the paid employees helping out with that.

Still, there’s always the P&C meetings, but who has time to attend those, and they always seem to go on forever – last thing I feel like doing is staying around to meet new people.

Trunking symbols9:13 am 13 Mar 09

When I started at Phillip College in the 1970s my mother asked whether she could serve in the canteen like she had done at my previous schools. She was told that the canteen workers were all paid employees and that parents would not be required. The idea that in 2009 we still have schools using parents as cheap labour in the tuck shops is remarkable. They should all be paid employees employed by the Education Department (or whatever they’re calling it this week).

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