Once a month for years we'd set off at 4.30am to trade at Cobbitty Markets. The fabled markets, set in the grounds of Cobbity Primary School has provided valuable income to the school for nearly 20 years. The beautifully landscaped, immaculately clean little school, nestled in an equally picturesque village, meets my approval in every way except the award winning "Healthiest School Canteen in NSW" plaque mounted ceremoniously above the front counter.
If we were quick enough to finish setting up before 6am, we'd have traditional market fare; the bacon & egg roll. One can never be considered a Marketeer until the take up of the morning market ritual. The crispy, flaky, soft dough white bun flanking the perfect grilled egg and succulent bacon finished off with a light drizzle of tomato sauce. I used to walk away with a Cheshire 'do not disturb - Bacon & Egg Moment' smile over my face, and I do mean it, all customer services cease for those precious few minutes, customers lined up 3 deep or not.
This little canteen, I have to say, makes one of the best Bacon & Egg rolls known to market kind.
The powerhouse of protein and carbs are vitally important to sustain the onslaught pace of Market trading. There usually is not another opportunity to eat after that, just quick sips of water to wet the tonsils for the next few hours. One rare occasion, with cold torrential rain keeping the masses away, we hankered for a cup of hot coffee. It was then I had the chance to scrutinise the canteen, waiting for the coffee to be ready. This school canteen, apparently the healthiest canteen in NSW stocked every type of chip, including the cheese and bacon balls, ice creams, poptops, flavoured milk and other items of dubious nutritional content. Um, if this is a picture of a healthy canteen, I'd hate to see what a regular canteen stocked......fairy floss and deep fried Mars Bars?
I attended a primary school, whose canteen would have to be a perfect model for nutrition. It was one of the reasons that inspired me to become a nutritionist, and mum's great hearty cooking being the other. Contemplating this while I waited for the coffee, I asked one of the ladies if they had either sultana's, unsalted nuts, fresh fruit wedges, carrot & celery sticks, cheese or yoghurt on their menu. "Nuts! Never!" she called out aghast at even saying the word was some strict taboo. "Ok then, what foods do you have for the ADHD kids then? as we all know the best natural calmative is nuts, especially peanuts, almonds and cashews, but you have cheese and bacon balls, wow, the teachers must really love the canteen after lunch".
What is the message we sending our young about healthy food choices?
Just because the canteen no longer stocks chocolate bars, doesn't make it a healthy one! Cheese and bacon balls, albeit irresistible tasty light morsels of delectable delight, are totally devoid of any nutritional content, they are empty calories of irritable hyperactivity.
So what did my childhood school canteen serve? a smorgasbord of colour, aroma and taste that no child ever complained about. The feast consisted of natural simple foods that was as varied as there were children that attended the school. Straight forward from either a vegemite, peanut butter or cheese roll or sandwich, choice of either white or brown bread. In winter the aroma of homemade soup wafted down the halls causing many a mouth to water.
In the fruit department, choices also varied from the little boxes of sultanas, fresh pieces of fruit to hold in the hand or in summer watermelon slices, rockmelon wedges, strawberries, trusses of grapes or cherry tomatoes. Yum.
There was always my favourite, the fruit and nut mix, how I loved the little white lolly bags filled with an assortment of dried fruit, nuts & seeds. I also loved the vege mix which were raw beans with carrot & celery sticks. Monday's was my favourite, the only day Apricot Squares were on offer, the dried apricot square dusted with a light coating of sugar, was the only sugary item to be served at the canteen, definitely had the nom nom factor, and a maximum allowance of 4 squares per child.
Mrs Robinson, my teacher was not only a beautiful angel, but an ingenious one. Every Monday after 'little lunch' we had outdoor activities that consisted of as much running, jumping and anything that was childly possible. She called it Apricot Activity Time.
Before recess started we were all given a 300ml tankard of milk to drink, only those that were lactose intolerant were exempt from the mandatory daily take of calcium. What happened to that brilliant idea anyway?
As I mentioned before, not one child groaned about the canteen fare, not one ever. There were competitions on who could get the loudest crunch on the beans or celery stick, or who had more nuts in their parcel, or boasted the tastiest cherry tomato. We loved our canteen food and we loved the mums that volunteered at the canteen. My mum was the soup queen, Leanne's mum was the 'roll' queen, and Deborah #5's mum chopped the vege sticks like no other. We had 8 Deborah's in our class, so they became numbers after exhausting all derivatives of the name. Debbie, Deb, Borah, Debra, by the fifth, we ran out, so they were called 5, 6, 7 & 8 after that. Seven and I were great friends all the way through primary school.
There might have been some snotty nosed, pesky boys at our school, but there were no 'fat' kids at all.
Canteens used to be owned and operated by the school itself with volunteer mums and an odd dad acting as free labour. Labour dished with love. I wasn't born in the stoneage as my kids tend to think, we did have chocolate bars, chips, icecreams way back then too, but these were purchased at the milkbar whilst waiting for the real hamburgers or fish and true chips were being cooked on Friday night's. Trying to explain to the kids what a milkbar was, is a different story altogether.
Most canteens are now privatised, they need to be an economically viable business entity, processed packaged foods are non labour intensive, high demand profit making items. With leases to the school, staff and operational costs to contend with, nutritionally defunct foods are the answer. Our kids are fast becoming dietary ignorant at the hands of monetary gains for the school.
Most canteens debate that children don't want healthy foods, it is a wasted enterprise. I beg to differ, my children after school, eat trusses of grapes, hunks of cheese, a sandwich, anything edible from the cupboard after school without complain. Ritch's favourite this week is a tuna and avocado sandwich washed down with a very large long glass of cold milk. I swear he doesn't take a breath as he downs the milk, but he is a whole lot more palatable afterwards. The "How can I be nice with an empty stomach" demeanour promptly vanishes after the last mouthful.
I don't have the junk food in the pantry period! There are no complaints from the members of the household, not that I have heard anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment