TRADITION A HIT WITH STUDENTS
BREKKIE ROOM IS TOAST OF SCHOOL
FORTY loaves of bread, four jars of Nutella, a kilogram of cheese spread, 15 litres of orange juice and Vegemite, Promite, honey, strawberry jam and cinnamon sugar.
It’s a long shopping list but it only lasts a day at Ignatius Park College’s “toast room”, with the school struggling to keep up with the hungry boys’ massive appetite.
We used
to go through 20 loaves, now it’s got to 40 IGNATIUS PARK COLLEGE VOLUNTEER KATH ALLAN
The Townsville college is calling out for parents to donate bread and spreads to stock its toast room, where it’s become a tradition for students to gather in the morning for a treat before class.
Kath Allan began volunteering at the school in 1998, when her grandson was a student there, and was part of a group that started the toast room in 1999.
It began as a way of making sure boys who hadn’t had breakfast had something to eat to start their day.
Ms Allan said as a former teacher she knew that students who skipped breakfast could “be a bit ratty”.
“It was an easy choice to switch from tuckshop to doing this,” she said.
“We used to go through 20 loaves, now it’s got to 40.
“A lot of kids come and a lot of kids come back twice.”
Ms Allan and three other volunteers slice and spread the bread from about 7.15am each day, ready for when the shutters open at 7.45am.
“Two- thirds of the students who come through want Nutella,” she said.
“The early morning start is we try and make a big box of Nutella ready to go.”
The school is asking parents to contribute a jar of spread each term but to Ms Allan, the toast room is not just about the food.
“If they’ve had an argument at home, they can come and get over it, talk to people and feel better,” she said.
“A lot of them do come for the social bit.”