A Day at Natone Primary School

Stephanie Lightman, our Natone Primary School Program Coordinator, recently visited Natone Primary School, and met with their incredible volunteer Canteen Manager, Caroline. Stephanie and Caroline commenced their Smart Food accreditation and discussed further support from School Food Matters for their school food service. Caroline has done an incredible job transforming the school canteen into a place that serves a variety of homemade hot lunches – mostly based on the School Food Matters recipes.

The school has grown significantly in recent times, and with the addition of several students with complex allergies, Caroline has created a special set of meals that cater to the requirements of all students and staff. This creates an inclusive environment, where no one is excluded from the canteen food service, and these items are so popular that many other kids and teachers without these allergies order them too! On the menu this term is pasta bolognese, chicken burgers with spinach and cheese, fried rice, and pasta with broccoli and chicken. Yum!

Natone Primary School kids eat in their classrooms or outside at picnic tables when the weather is nice (which, as we know in Tasmania, can be rare at certain times of the year!) But the view at this school is incredible; rolling green hills and farmland, the tree-covered Dial Range, and glimpses of the ocean.

They also have a kitchen garden, and the waste from the canteen goes to either feed chickens or is composted. It is such an amazing effort, and the work that Caroline puts in is not only a practical act of care, but it also reaches beyond the plate and into the life of the school. At School Food Matters, we understand the effect that a positive and nutritionally sound food service can have on children and their learning, and with volunteers like Caroline cooking from the heart, Natone Primary School is in excellent hands!