by rebecca huntley

I’m a director of a social research firm, a radio presenter, a columnist and a writer. I am also a canteen mum.

In my professional life I’ve operated in all kinds of organisations fraught with politics and difficult personalities. The Labor Party. The feminist movement. Fairfax. The ABC.

Nothing compares to the factionalism, power plays, personality clashes and ideological schisms of a school canteen.

Food is one of my things, so I thought canteen duty would be a good way to make a contribution. A nice, easy, uncomplicated way to contribute to the school.

I arrived early for the lunchtime shift and was put immediately on toasted-cheese sandwich duty while being warned I’d have to make sixty-five of those babies in fifty minutes.

While I was buttering the multigrain,