Canteen Corner

School canteens are required to adhere to the same Food Safety Standards as restaurants, cafes, clubs, etc. Each year, the Upper Hunter Shire Council sends a Health Inspector out to all of the food premises registered with them to inspect and report the outcome. 

The Health Inspector completes a 45 point checklist, covering staff qualifications and demonstrated knowledge, personal hygiene, cleanliness of the canteen, food storage, preparation of food, testing and controlling the temperature of foods, allergy awareness and cross contamination prevention, stock rotation, pest control, rubbish control plus more.

If you are curious about the Food Safety Standards,  you can read about it through this link. Standard 3.2.2A- Food safety management tools | Food Standards Australia New Zealand It contains a lot of information about what goes on behind the scenes in food businesses, including our canteen.

We are very pleased to share the news that we scored 100% (again)! You may have noticed at restaurants and cafes in other council areas that they show their Stars on Doors Certificate. Our council doesn’t participate in this program, but if they did, we would have achieved a 5 Star Certificate. 

Our canteen staff are all qualified Food Safety Supervisors. There are updates to the Food Safety Standards coming into effect in December this year. Anyone wishing to volunteer in the canteen is required to complete the free Food Handling Basics Course Food Handler Basics training | NSW Food Authority and email or print a copy of your certificate for the canteen records. This is one of the items the Health Inspector checks (it’s the law). This training is designed to ensure that every person who handles food does so to the same standard, to make sure every customer in every food outlet is being served food that is safe to eat. Under these updates, we are required to prove that our food is safe, not just say it is. 

A LITTLE HOUSEKEEPING PLEASE

Please remind your student if you have placed an online lunch order for them. We often get to the end of lunch break and have orders waiting to be collected and have to disrupt the next class to have the student say “I didn’t know”. 

Thank you to the parents who let us know that their student is absent. This means that we can hold the lunch order and fill it when the student returns to school. The student does need to come and see canteen staff before the end of recess to let us know they have returned and would like their order filled. Lunch orders that we prepare the food for, that are not collected nor an absence notified, end up with the food being wasted, in which case we cannot offer a re-fill or refund.

We still have some students whose QKR! Profile does not reflect their current year group. We cannot change this at our end. Please go into the QKR! App and choose the Profiles Tab (next to Menu). You will then be able to select your student and adjust their Year Group and Class using the drop down boxes. Please ensure that you do not accidentally select Staff. At the beginning of each year the profiles need to be updated, as it doesn’t happen automatically.

Canteen email: abd-canteen@mn.catholic.edu.au

Your canteen staff are Karen, Andrea and Lee.