FATHER figures are braving the task of feeding queues of hungry children in the canteen at Currambine Primary School this week.
The school’s branch of The Fathering Project, LaDDs (Loving and Devoted Dads) has been running a ‘dads in canteen’ initiative since 2015 to get fathers more involved in the school.
“This year we have scheduled the last week of each term to be ‘dads in canteen’, which involves helping the canteen ladies get the lunches ready and set aside in classroom order,” chairman Rob Williams said.
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READ NOW“The dads can be forgiven for wondering what they have got themselves in for when confronted by three lines of hungry students, but soon fall into a routine of asking the name and class number and then handing over the cheesies, nachos, sausage sizzle and toasted sandwiches to the correct student.
“Once the lunch siren has sounded to indicate the end of the eating period and the start of the recreational part of the lunchtime session, there are usually return customers looking for frozen yoghurts, popsicles and slushies.”
Mr Wilson said regular canteen staff took photos of dads and their children as they came up for lunches.
“It’s fantastic to see the beaming smiles on the children’s faces and also see the smiles of dads who realise that it is rewarding to be involved,” he said.
Mr Wilson said LADDs would be encouraging fathers of pre-schoolers to get involved next term, as the youngsters would get to experience what “big” students have been doing all year in the last week of term four.
He said the volunteer group organised activities to encourage greater involvement by the fathering cohort through the school year, which strengthened relationships between fathers and father figures and benefited children.
Visit fatheringcps.com or thefatheringproject.org for more information.