Toasties are legendary at Leighland breakfast club

The toastie production line is at breaking point as students wait four-deep for a hot snack before classes begin at Leighland Christian School at Ulverstone.

Chaplain Julie McLean and her two student volunteers at the school’s breakfast club are efficient but hampered by the lack of another powerpoint to run the third, four-sandwich toaster.

More than 50 high school students and a few daring primary school pupils have descended on the drama room for the Friday breakfast feast of yoghurt, apples, juice, cheese or ham and cheese toasties. It’s a calm, warm and inviting space. Music plays in the background as students wander in from just after 8am until the frantic last call nearing 9am. 

Breakfast club is a partnership between Devonport Chaplaincy, which manages school chaplains, and its sister organisation, Loaves and Fishes Tasmania, which provides the food, including making up the ham and cheese sandwiches ready for a smear of butter or Nuttelex before toasting.

For some, the toasted sandwich is a second breakfast, for others it’s the breakfast they didn’t get time to eat at home, while for others it’s the only breakfast they were ever going to get.

Chaplain Julie says the spiritual, social and emotional connections of various age groups mingling in a neutral space is as important, or more so, than the food.

“Some need food, some companionship; it’s about building the Leighland’s community,” she said.

“This is a safe space where there are no cliques or groups, just students from different years interacting together.

“It’s great when you see kids checking in with each other, being grateful for the food and being part of something bigger than just themselves.”

While the breakfast club is for high school students at this stage, half a dozen primary-age boys have turned up, staying on the fringes and not making a fuss in case they get noticed and are asked to leave. Instead, they are welcomed and fed along with everyone else. (The school plans to trial a primary school club in the near future.)

Toasted sandwiches and fruit are delivered to the school bus stop and handed to students who arrive as the bell goes for the start of classes. As a regional school, students attend from Port Sorell, Gunns Plains, Wynyard and Burnie. Many have had a long day before the first book is opened.

Food is also supplied to “The Well” a calm and relaxed space for students who struggle with crowds and noise.

Julie said she would like to train up more volunteers to allow the breakfast club to operate more frequently, and to include the entire school body.

She is also wanting to add Milo to the breakfast mix, no doubt a sure recipe for even more customers, particularly in the colder months.

By Paul O’Rourke