Every child deserves healthy wholesome food

Ahhhhhh……….

Finally I can breathe. The first Tasty Tuesday Tuckshop is over. Done and dusted!

And it was a huge, huge success! I slaved at the stove last week non stop…. 70 sausage rolls (took me a whole day), 15 litres of stock (which I cooked over 2 days, so to extract all the goodness from the bones), 50 beetroot brownies (which I made very close to midnight, Monday night) and lets not forget the 10kg of beetroot that I cooked, peeled and pureed to make those brownies and lastly 200 or so, freshly squeezed apple juice icypoles (juiced very kindly by Heidy), which Kaye and I did together – love a bit of team work!

 

But whinging aside, yesterday I had 10 wonderful mums and one super nanny help me pop popcorn, pick up pasta, cook pasta, deliver me 60 iggy’s bread rolls, write names of children on our bio-degradable containers, make the most delicious smoothie and finally clean up - which luckily I escaped!

And two special mum’s who without their help I am not sure I would have showed up on Tuesday morning. Kaye, thank you for keeping my very scattered brain in check, there is always two parts to every story and this would never have happened if you hadn’t got many systems in place and Daniella (Nonno’s daughter) who made a red sauce to die for – thank god I’ve got you to call on if it all goes pear, you are an amazing cook and a godsend! The thought of having to make that sauce as well as the 10,000 other things I needed to do, almost pushed me over the edge.

THIS TIN LOOKS SMALL, BUT IT'S MASSIVE

And this would never have been possible without the people who are as passionate about their food as me, the unbelievable food producers and suppliers, who helped this dream become a reality. Ludmilla and Igor at Iggy’s – best bread in the world, thank you for helping us again – the kids LOVED the rolls ! Grassroots Urban Butchery for the chicken bones and mince meat, Wholefoods house Woollahra for helping me out with suppliers. 

Late last night, after not stopping for a whole week (literally), I thought to myself, ‘Is this worth it?’ ‘Do I have it in me?’ Max had questioned my decision to do this, ‘For what???', he said, ‘Our kids will always have good lunches so why are you doing this, what are you trying to prove? You’re already busy enough.’ 

And the answer is, all children deserve healthy wholesome food. To me nothing is better than seeing the kids enjoying the food that we made! Not only did they love the food, but their brains would have loved it too! For me nothing beats watching them eat a delicious warm healthy lunch – nothing except, hearing how the little kindies perched their soup on the seats outside and knelt down so as not to spill a drop – nothing got me more than that!

And to hear the year 6’s (Mima’s class) talking about how yummy it was (and they can be quite tricky) was enough to get me through the week ahead!

 OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE NO PHOTO'S OF THE ACTUAL DAY, I WAS RUN OFF MY FEET. DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO SCRATCH MY SELF. BUT NEXT WEEK I WILL POST FULL DOCUMENTATION OF THE DAY - PROMISE!

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All photos taken by Michelle Schoeps