In a pocket of Artarmon Public School's playground, three vegetable gardens are lovingly maintained to ensure they yield plenty of fresh produce for the school's canteen.
Fresh vegetables are vital to the school's tuckshop, where homemade pasta bolognese, full of hidden vegetables, significantly outsells old-fashioned meat pies while chicken and vegetable soup is usually sold out by recess. Sushi is also popular, as are the healthy meal deals which include a bottle of water and an apple slinky.
The canteen manager, Michele Stockley-Smith, loves to cook at home and uses the same passion for food in the school's tuckshop.
"I cook as much as I possibly can ...I make my own bolognese every day which is the most popular dish with the children, and I also make my own soup every day," Ms Stockley-Smith said.
"I make my own fruit jelly cups without any processed sugar, just fruit juice, and we probably go through at least 100 of those a week."
The mother of four can have as many as 220 orders a day and last year she prepared 22,000 lunches for the students.
She said the most popular drinks on the menu were chocolate and strawberry milks but she checks every single order and ensures students only order one.
"I don't let children buy more than one drink and if they have ordered two, I call them into the canteen and ask them if it is for a sibling or whether it is their birthday and if it isn't their birthday, they don't get two, I am pretty strict about these things," she said.
Another popular meal on the menu is honey soy noodles on a Tuesday, where she uses steamed noodles, low-salt soy sauce and leafy green vegetables.
"I just keep it healthy. I still buy meat pies, but I might only sell eight of those in one day, but I would have at least 40 bologneses" she said.
