Blackheath is a little town
Music
Set on an escarpment of the Blue Mountains. It's quite a vibrant community because it's still quite a small community. That's the beautiful thing about Blackheath.- We had a canteen, running very successfully.
Then, just last year, a situation arose
where the canteen was no longer financially viable.
The canteen had to be closed for term.
0:30
That was a huge gap in our school.
0:32
- It was quite an impassioned fight
0:35
to get the canteen back and running.
0:37
We are actually running the canteen now as a business.
0:40
The P and C I guess is the employer of the canteen managers,
0:42
and so the canteen has to be a sustainable business model.
0:47
- One of the issues with school canteens is
0:49
it's so hard to get volunteers.
0:50
We really had to try and nurture
0:52
a really positive volunteer culture base.
0:55
So we just said to everybody,
0:57
if you've got 20 minutes up your sleeve,
0:58
or if you've got the whole day,
1:00
just pop in, and we'll always find you something to do.
1:03
- I'm a local builder.
1:05
Take Friday mornings off to do the volunteering.
1:08
And you can drop in for as long or as little as you want.
1:11
It's good fun.
1:12
A lot of the parents get in there a little bit earlier
1:14
just so we can catch up.
1:17
- My own opinion about school canteens is
1:19
we have a captive market, so we have a responsibility
1:23
to serve them healthy food.
1:26
- We work on the principle that
1:28
if we wouldn't eat it, we're not gonna serve it.
1:31
There's not a lot of food that we actually buy in.
1:33
It's more stuff that we actually make every day.
End of transcript
Blackheath is a little town
0:06
set on an escarpment of the Blue Mountains.
0:10
It's quite a vibrant community
0:12
because it's still quite a small community.
0:13
That's the beautiful thing about Blackheath.
0:17
- We had a canteen, running very successfully.
0:21
Then, just last year, a situation arose
0:24
where the canteen was no longer financially viable.
0:28
The canteen had to be closed for term.
0:30
That was a huge gap in our school.
0:32
- It was quite an impassioned fight
0:35
to get the canteen back and running.
0:37
We are actually running the canteen now as a business.
0:40
The P and C I guess is the employer of the canteen managers,
0:42
and so the canteen has to be a sustainable business model.
0:47
- One of the issues with school canteens is
0:49
it's so hard to get volunteers.
0:50
We really had to try and nurture
0:52
a really positive volunteer culture base.
0:55
So we just said to everybody,
0:57
if you've got 20 minutes up your sleeve,
0:58
or if you've got the whole day,
1:00
just pop in, and we'll always find you something to do.
1:03
- I'm a local builder.
1:05
Take Friday mornings off to do the volunteering.
1:08
And you can drop in for as long or as little as you want.
1:11
It's good fun.
1:12
A lot of the parents get in there a little bit earlier
1:14
just so we can catch up.
1:17
- My own opinion about school canteens is
1:19
we have a captive market, so we have a responsibility
1:23
to serve them healthy food.
1:26
- We work on the principle that
1:28
if we wouldn't eat it, we're not gonna serve it.
1:31
There's not a lot of food that we actually buy in.
1:33
It's more stuff that we actually make every day.