Kitchen garden and healthy canteen

In 2009, the Merici Student Representative Council (SRC) approached the College Executive with a proposal for the College to take over the running of the school canteen. The SRC’s vision was to transform the old canteen which sold unhealthy packaged food, into a space for learning and socialising that sold affordable, healthy, delicious and sustainable meals.

The Healthy Canteen is now in its 12th year of operation and produces approximately 200 meals per school day for students and staff. In our state-of-the-art industrial kitchen, students studying Hospitality in Years 10, 11 and 12 collaborate with and learn from a team of teaching and professional staff to prepare meals. Accompanying our casual dining space is the Merici Restaurant, which holds lunch and dinner sittings 8 times per year that are open to the public.

The Healthy Canteen operates in conjunction with our Organic Kitchen Garden, where vegetables, herbs and fruit are cultivated year-round by the Year 9s and 10s studying the Sustainability Elective. All the produce from the garden (including eggs from the chooks) is used to make meals sold at the Healthy Canteen. Food scraps from the kitchens are composted and used as fertiliser in the Garden – a sustainable closed loop!