What is going on at school Tuck Shops these days.
Over the years since I left school I have read all about the new fangled Canteen/Tuck Shop that schools have.
No Junk food, homemade food only, real food. Open on limited days only.
Not at our school canteen. It is open everyday and is filled with all sorts of treats.
We decided at the start of the year, all three weeks ago, that Tuesday was icypole day, or if it was really hot, it was icypole day.
However Popps has managed to get something from the canteen EVERY DAY.
Such items have included
- Tiny Teddies
- Chocolate Mousse
- Jelly in a Cup
- Slushies
- SuperDooper Icy poles x 289000
- Packets of chips
She has also been given cupcakes and lolly pops from other friends that have brought them in especially for her.
One Mum came and asked me if it was alright for her daughter to buy mine an icypole that day at school.
I was kind of stumped. We are friends with them. We don't require them to provide our child lunch. I already pack enough in her lunch box each day, and I include a treat item each day already. But is it rude and unnecessary to decline the offer, it is after all only a 50cent icypole? What is the harm? I said ok, but that this was a once off, reminding Popps and them that Tuesday was her Canteen day.
I have no control over this canteen shenanigans that is going on. I don't think I like it. But it is one battle I am just not going to bother with right now.
How is your school canteen? Do you buy other kids treats from the canteen all week (like mine)? Do your kids love the canteen as much as Popps?
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
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I am a canteen Mummy. The Det of Education policy is trying hard but it is very easy to cirumnavigate!
ReplyDeleteWe are open 8.25 - 9.00 for fruit, and takeaway coffees for parents.
Then again at 11.15-11.35 recess for fruit and "healthy" snacks that are things like mini pizza wedges and oven baked hash browns and certain brands of chippies and fruit.
Then again at lunch for an hour for icy poles, slushies, chips and jellies and "home made" muffins etc.
Then again at 3.00- 3.25 for icy poles etc.
We have a paid canteen manager and a host of volunteer mums - the Right Bite policy is easy to fudge in favour of the kids!
In terms of my kids - they have a dollar to spend on a Friday and I am mug enough to treat the world and his kids when I am "on duty" and after school...
Morning Coffees - Brilliant!
DeleteI haven't hit the school canteen days, but I know I won't like my kids having access to whatever they want every day! I feel like such a strict spoil sport most of the time so I'm secretly a little bit pleased that a pretty laid back mum like yourself feels annoyed too! ;-)
ReplyDeletePrepare thy self!
DeleteYes, happens at our canteen too, mine have bought things for others and the kids share food, I find all sort of empty packets in Little Bits bag...that I didnt pack!! And the canteens get around the guidelines very easily....its all about the money at the end of the day :)
ReplyDeleteThankfully, I'm not at that stage yet. It's fortunate that kindergartens haven't cottoned on to the money making potential of canteens! But I "intend" (oh that famous word we use before we are actually faced with the reality) to be a strict mama. Exactly the type that I used to complain about my mum being. One canteen day a week. Probably enough money to choose a lunch time item and a treat (do they still do lunch orders to allow the parents some control over the child's spending?). And even then, canteen day may jeopardise family take away night.... I wonder what Little R would rather. Pizza with mum and dad on the weekend or sausage rolls and chips with little jimmy? I'll bet by that time, Little Jimmy will win hands down.
ReplyDeleteWe dont have a canteen, only a local shop that does the order, and parents club sell icy pole on fridays in 1st and 4th term!
ReplyDeleteI say dont worry about it ! Popps is making friends and thats what they do!
My kids' school doesn't have a canteen - they can order lunch orders from the local milk bar and that's about it! On hot days, someone organises icypoles and the like, but normally, it's not an issue. The kids have lunch orders once a week (mainly because I can only fit eight tupperware sandwich keepers in the freezer, and I only want to make lunches ONCE a week!)
ReplyDeleteOur canteen is only open 2 days and we have a "one item only" policy. This means the kds are limited to one thing and therefore can't buy stuff for each other. Any other stuff has o be ordered online by their parents. Seems to work well. x
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to pop back in here and say that the canteen at my kids school doesn't make any money at all. It breaks even. It's a service, not a money earner or a fundraiser. (It makes a loss a lot of months - we provide free school lunches to a number of families.)
ReplyDeleteThe school uniform shop, on the other hand....it's the school cash cow...
That's interesting Lucy, I was thinking that the coffees idea could be a great income stream for a school if they had the support from the parents. I have no idea about the finances at the school yet, but from looking so far, our uniform shop sells all the second hand stuff at $2 a piece, they can't make much from that, but I wonder what the mark up on the clothes actually is....interesting!!!!
DeleteHello, am writing from the canteen... brought my laptop in for the down times. This is at my older boys' school, they tend to ignore the sushi and go for the crumbed chicken breast and chocolate milks. Fridays is usually the day I give them some cash.
ReplyDeleteI just checked the ice poles and they only have 8g of carbs, probably sugar... so not the end of the world. But am ever so delighted that the little twins have no canteen at their school- keeps it simple. They'd LOVE me to but them an ice block after school every day, and I do sometimes. As in many mothering matters, am a great disappointment to them.
PS Enjoying spying on the big boys and am trying very, very hard not to embarass them, tough tho' that is.
AT my daughter's school the canteen is off site, contracted to a local cafe. I love it. It operates each day, but only for lunch. Free range chicken breast burgers, homemade soups & pizzas, macaroni cheese, all good, decent food. As a rule she gets a lunch order each friday, because we're all over it by then.
ReplyDeleteMy son's school has the normal tuck shop. He gets cash from us and spends it there (also only on fridays) items like hot dogs, wedges, slushies and dim sims feature on the menu. I hate it, but I figure the rest of the week he gets balanced meals.
As for sharing... I never give my kids extra money for their friends. But I know my kids are given food items from their friends. I too have chosen not to battle it. SOme things you just can't win.
Every week?? My boy gets a 'lunch order' as an end of term treat - although this approach was upset a tad at the end of our first year when we discovered that there was no lunch orders on the last day of term 4. You know he was sure to remind me, after the summer break on the first day of term 1, that I 'owed' him one! I've only broken from the one-per-term rule twice, on a special occasion when he's chosen it as a reward for his efforts.
ReplyDeleteMy sons school has a canteen full of junk food. There are supposedly some healthy choices on the menu. Is a 7 year old seriously expected to make wise food decisions? No surprise that obesity is at epidemic proportions. We start em young at school, talk the talk but don't walk the walk!
ReplyDelete