Healthy Kids School Canteen Association

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Kensington

Classroom Teaching Supported by the School Canteen

The school canteen at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College, Kensington plays a vital support role for the food and nutrition lessons taught in the classroom.

Year 11 students undertake a Certificate ll in Hospitality Operations Course. As part of the requirements for this course students prepare a number of dishes in the classroom, which are then sold in the canteen. On the day that the Healthy Kids SCA visited the school and its canteen, students Lisa, Jasmine, Amanda and Samantha were preparing fruit salad and Caesar salad for sale in the canteen later that day. The students packaged the salads attractively in plastic containers.

The girls enjoy learning about the preparation of healthy foods and are pleased with the results. “It’s as good as something that you would buy from a store,” remarked one student, while another said, “The staff rave about the food that we prepare!”

Canteen Manager, Poppy, says it is a great help to her to have the food that students have prepared to sell in the canteen. She also has the help of Year 9 students who are learning valuable skills. Students are rostered on each day to put the daily menu on the menu blackboard and they also help to serve in the school canteen.

Linking the canteen with the classroom and the formal curriculum is a vital component of the Health Promoting School model. By linking with the classroom the school canteen can benefit from the food produced and the help offered by wiling students. However, Mrs Zannettides the TAS Co-ordinator believes that the support that the students and teachers receive from the canteen and the reinforcement of the nutritional messages learnt in the classroom by the canteen are invaluable.