In a small school kitchen in Melbourne’s outer west, the smell of macaroni and cheese and steaming plates of paella fills the room as hungry students pile in. The children laugh at each other and dance; a typical scene of any canteen lunch line.
Only this is Melton Specialist School – one of dozens across the state for students with intellectual disability, neurodiversity and physical disabilities – where a routine healthy lunch isn’t always guaranteed in a child’s school day.
Simone Biancalani, the Tuscan chef behind the school’s newly launched lunch club, says his mac and cheese – which is packed with at least five kilograms of cauliflower – is a staple in the diets of 100 of its 400 students.
Today’s paella, however, is a risky, unfamiliar dish the students have never encountered. “When I started, many wouldn’t even go close to the food,” Biancalani says. “It’s not about ego this job, it’s about trying to find the foods the kids enjoy.”
Lining up for lunch is Christian Cooke, a year 6 student with autism, ADHD, Klinefelter syndrome and mild intellectual disability. Before joining the program, he would eat only noodles and toasties for lunch.
He often argued with his mother, Rachel, about the canned tuna or sandwiches she sent with him to school. Since eating Biancalani’s lunches, though, he can list at least eight new meals he enjoys – jacket potatoes are a clear favourite, as well as brownies made from sweet potato and chickpeas.
“I wanted to eat it because the food is yummy,” Christian says.
The program has been a circuit breaker at home, too. Where Christian’s diet was previously limited to plain dishes such as spaghetti cautiously dipped in sauce in a separate bowl, now he’ll eat nearly anything he’s tried at school.
“It’s because all the kids are eating together. The other kids were eating it, so he wanted to eat it, too,” Rachel says.
Melton Specialist School principal Brooke Briody says the school environment removes a lot of the stress around food and mealtime.
“At home, there’s time pressure, there are costs, and that can add to the rigidity around their eating,” she says. “At school, they’re going to have fun regardless of whether they try a tiny bit or they have a lot.”
Australia is one of the few high-income countries without a national school meals program, according to an OzHarvest Report released last month.
At Melton Specialist School, teachers are finding food is a direct opportunity for learning. Since beginning the trial last year, there has been a 13 per cent increase in students achieving social goals, and a 15 per cent increase in exceeding achievement goals. More than half of the students are attending school more often.
“You can broaden your language just by being around food. And it’s an amazing motivator for some kids,” Briody says.
Despite the program’s success, much of the food comes from donations, and Biancalani is working in a classroom kitchen designed for students to learn food technology, not cater for hundreds of people.
Now, the school has plans to build a new kitchen and a bigger dining room that will allow them to feed all 400 students daily if it can fundraise $300,000 for a staged redevelopment of a communal area and unused classroom. “We can only have 10 or 12 kids eating together at one time. The social side of learning is really impacted by the space,” Briody says.
After digging into the paella, Christian decides it isn’t for him, and politely asks for a bowl of fruit instead. Children learning to reject food and ask for something different is all part of the program, says school wellbeing leader Olivia Desormeaux.
“When they go on excursions and family gatherings, they can say, ‘no, thank you’,” she says. “The learning here is empowering them.”
By the end of lunch, three-quarters of the students have tried the paella. Loved or loathed, the meal is a talking point teachers and carers can engage them with for the rest of the day.
“We aren’t saying we have all the answers, but we’re trying,” Desormeaux says. “And we are seeing a beautiful program get embedded in our school culture. Food is a real connector.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Jackson Graham is an education reporter at The Age. He was previously an explainer reporter.Connect via email.
