06 March 2025
A Home Cooked Meal on a Saturday Night
SPSC has a long-standing relationship with the Collective of St Mary Magdalene. In 1912, the School built the Mission Hall, where the Mary Mags Dinners are held today. The School has continued to volunteer with this dinner service annually for over 20 years. With hands-on and financial support from parents of the Mission Guild, three times a year SPSC runs a dinner service on a Saturday evening for approximately 120 people who are experiencing cost of living pressures here in Adelaide. It is an opportunity for our senior students, supported by staff and parents, to prepare, serve and clean up meals in an environment of mutual respect, care and friendship.
Year 11 students Will Foreman and Alexander Chan share their experience:
SPSC students volunteered for the Mary Mags Dinners in February. On Friday 21 February six Year 11 students prepared and cooked meals for the Saturday’s main event. The Friday was a great way to get to know parent volunteer and lead supervisor Toula Tsamandanis. Toula’s guidance made the Friday night smooth sailing along with the help of Mr David Nolan. This was a great afternoon developing deeper connections with other boys while working on the multiple tasks each student had.
We prepared minestrone soup, a vegetable pasta bake for a vegetarian option and a classic meat and vegetable pasta bake. This was a real team effort in making sure everything was done consistently and at a high standard.
On Saturday 22 February, the team met together at the Centre on Moore St in the city at 4.30pm to begin the final prep before dinner service at 6pm. We heated up the food we had prepared and set the tables for the guests arriving. There, we were met by the co-ordinator Jeremy Hayman, and he gave us a run-through of the night, as well as the history of the Mary Mags Dinners organisation. Once service started, we were divided into stations and did jobs such as plating, serving and dishwashing.
The first meal we served was minestrone soup, with some buttered bread. This was when the boys realised how fast and chaotic service can be. The next course was the pasta bake, where the boys were certainly not light on the food portions. For the last course of the night, the dessert was apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. This was a fan favourite and just what everyone felt like to end a lovely meal. After service, the group were recognised for their tremendous efforts; as some of the long serving guests said it was “the best minestrone soup they had ever had”.
This night was an amazing experience which the boys will treasure for the rest of their lives. The group learnt that certain things we take for granted such as a connecting with friends over a nice sit-down dinner once a week can make some people’s weeks and made us realise how grateful we all are for having the opportunity to do this initiative.
A big thank you to Ms Ashleigh Day, Mr David Nolan, Mr Jacob Robson and Toula Tsamandanis for supervising and helping the group with running both nights, we are extremely grateful for your help. The whole group had a great time, and we look forward to future Mary Mags Dinners.
Thank you to the following volunteers:
Year 11 Students
-Glen Li
-Alexander Chan
-Franco Quaini
-Will Foreman
-Adan Khurram
-Hugo Browne
-Matthew Liu
-Jonathan Balasis
-Tiger Liu (School Vice Captain)
Helpers on Friday evening:
-Remi Bizot (Year 6)
Parents
-Toula Tsamandanis
-Lucy Bizot
-Meegan Addison
-Bianca and Jono Harms
-Kirsty Whiteman
Staff
-Mr David Nolan
-Mr Jacob Robson
-Ms Ashleigh Day
