By Matthew Pearce
Glenmore State High School’s Julie Bradshaw is busier than ever after being crowned Central Queensland’s favourite tuckshop lady.
Julie got the shock of her life last week when Triple M morning show host Pinky appeared in the school tuckshop along with staff and students to present her with a ‘Best Tuckshop’ sign.
She’d been aware of the Triple M’s competition to find the best tuckshop in CQ, and knew Glenmore High had been nominated, but never expected the school to win.
“I was surprised because there are a lot bigger tuckshops around,” she said.
Julie certainly knows her way around a school canteen. While she’s been at Glenmore High for two years, she worked at the Glenmore State School tuckshop for 13 years before that and volunteered at the primary school for another six years before that.
She’s the only full-time staff member at the tuckshop, usually supported each day by a volunteer and a casual staff-member.
“It’s busy but we have it down pat,” she said.
Julie said school tuckshops had changed over the years thanks to Smart Choices and the introduction of healthier meals.
Tuckshop classics like pies and sausage rolls have dropped in popularity in recent years in favour of home-cooked meals like butter chicken and even Sushi.
“The butter chicken and rice was so popular today that I had to defrost another four kilos of chicken,” she said.
“My husband can’t get over the fact that the kids will buy salads, but they do. Sometimes if I know I’m going to have a big day the next day, I’ll make extra salads and they’ll buy them all.
The tuckshop has had an upgrade in recent months thanks to the school’s P&C executive committee, which included replacing the old domestic oven, dubbed ‘Lucifer’, with a new industrial oven.
Thursday is pizza and pasta day at Glenmore High, which sees Julie and her team make 64 small pizzas and about 30 or 40 serves of spaghetti bolognaise.
With the tuckshop boasting a “rather large menu”, Julie has considered dropping certain items depending on the season, but the students won’t have a bar of it.
“When it comes to butter chicken, they want it whether it’s hot or cold,” she said.
“Yesterday I cut back on sushi thinking they wouldn’t want it because of the cold weather, but the seniors were not impressed.”
Recent popular lunch specials have included slow cooker pumpkin soup, pulled pork and slaw, burrito bowls and roast beef with veggies and gravy. The tuckshop also caters for gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options.
In addition to serving meals at lunch and second break, the tuckshop hosts Brekky Club, thanks to the support of the Rockhampton Food Bank.
The school’s staff are also fans of the tuckshop food, with teachers from the neighbouring Capricornia School of Distance Education also dropping in on their lunch break.
Julie plans to use her $250 prize to take her staff to dinner, where someone else can cook for them for once.
She said she couldn’t do her job without the support of her staff, volunteer and the Glenmore High P&C.