[News] Migrants sharpen their English while keeping Queensland's school tuckshops afloat

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A volunteer school tuckshop program operating in Queensland's most diverse city is helping migrants and refugees gain confidence and settle into Australia's working culture. The city of Logan, south of Brisbane, is home to people from 217 different cultures — many are new residents who have only recently arrived in Australia and feel daunted by the prospect of trying to find a job. Now a local school tuckshop program, Connections Through Cooking, is working with refugees and migrants to help them make friends, gain work experience and sharpen their English-speaking skills. After launching two years ago, the program now operates across 15 schools around Logan City and South Brisbane. Aimee Johnston from Queensland Association of School Tuckshops (QAST) said the not-for-profit organisation thought the program was a win-win for volunteers, school students and the tuckshops, which are often struggling to secure volunteers."We were working at the time to try and encourage people from diverse backgrounds to understand what a tuckshop is and how it runs," she said. "It's quite different from countries overseas where students might go home for lunch or it's provided by the schools."Ms Johnston said school students were also benefitting from the program. "A lot of the students, particularly down here in Logan, they themselves come from diverse backgrounds so it's really friendly and welcoming to see someone from their own culture in the tuckshop," Ms Johnston said.As part of the program, QAST helps volunteers apply for and secure a blue card, which enables them to work with children. Two years since it was launched, dozens of migrants and refugees have now gone through the program with some gaining paid employment at tuckshops or in other hospitality roles. Geeta More, who migrated from India, has been volunteering since the program started in 2019 and said the tuckshop she works at has asked for her chicken curry recipe to add to its menu.Woodridge State School in the heart of Logan City is home to roughly 800 students. Tuckshop convenor, Charlene Hope has been working at the school for 18 years and said she can often make more than 50 lunches a day. "I am the only one here usually so I rely on the volunteers to get through the day," Ms Hope said. "They're very hard workers and they want to try and make everything, so there's no drama with 'I don't want to do this job, I don't want to do that'," she said. "I've got a couple [of volunteers] now that don't even have kids at the school anymore and they still come back.""I feel confident when I come to tuckshop. I can learn new words from the food and from my friends — they explain to me so many things I never knew before," she said.