In Queensland, food insecurity is made worse by geographical isolation and particularly impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities . It's estimated up to 31% of this demographic experiences food insecurity. Remote communities in North Queensland are twice as likely to experience food insecurity compared to communities in Brisbane. There's a range of factors that contribute to this, including weather events, adequate infrastructure and economic opportunity.

One school in North Queensland has an initiative in place to help their community address these issues and improve the health outcomes for the children and their community.

In 2024, Normanton State School implemented a Free Feed Friday initiative to address food insecurity issues and help improve health outcomes for their children and their community.

In this episode, we talk to Tonia, the Principal of Normanton State School, and Gillian, Tuckshop Convener of Deadly Tuckshop about how they rolled out the initiative and how successful it has been.

This podcast is proudly brought to you by the Queensland Association of School Tuckshops and funded by the Queensland Government through Health and Wellbeing Queensland.

With over one third of children’s daily energy consumed while at school, it is important that the tuckshop offers vegetarian and plant-based options that are nutritional, delicious and varied

Planning is ESSENTIAL to ensure nutrient requirements are met when replacing animal products on your menu with suitable vegetarian or plant-based replacements.

In this episode we talk to Keryn O'Neill, QAST Executive Officer, qualified nutritionist and former Health and Nutrition teacher, about how your tuckshop can cater for members of your school community who subscribe to vegetarian and plant-based diets.

This podcast is proudly brought to you by the Queensland Association of School Tuckshops and funded by the Queensland Government through Health and Wellbeing Queensland.

Sustainable practices in tuckshops are fast becoming a focus in Australian schools. Tackling food waste is a big priority for many tuckshop convenors and while tackling this can be overwhelming at first, there's many ways to start slow and build your way up.

In this episode we talk to Sarah Potts, Co-Convenor from Kenmore South State School, and Natalie Farrugia, the outgoing convenor at Newmarket State School about easy steps to start making your tuckshop more sustainable.

This podcast is proudly brought to you by the Queensland Association of School Tuckshops and funded by the Queensland Government through Health and Wellbeing Queensland.