School canteen roster
The tuckshop roster, without the Sunday night ring-around
Put your volunteer families in once, set the days the tuckshop opens, and FairTurns shares the helper shifts out across the term. Parents check one link instead of messaging the convenor.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
Twenty names on the helper form, and still three gaps on Friday
At the start of the year forty families tick “happy to help in the tuckshop” on the enrolment form. The convenor types them into a spreadsheet, sends a roster home in the newsletter, and by week three it has stopped matching reality. One mum has gone back to work on Wednesdays. A dad who said Fridays actually meant every second Friday. The newsletter has already gone out, so the fixes travel by text.
Meanwhile the convenor is the one standing at the bain-marie at 11:30 with forty lunch orders and only one helper. The keen parents get asked again, because they always say yes, and the families who ticked the box never quite get a turn.
FairTurns gives the tuckshop one roster that stays current. It knows who works which days, hands each shift to the family that has helped least so far, and the link always shows the latest version.
How FairTurns runs the tuckshop
Parents by name
Paste the names from the helper form. Parents can be rostered and printed without an email address, and you can invite the ones who want reminders.
Opening days set once
Click a Monday, set 8:45–11:00, choose “Every week on Monday”, then add Wednesday and Friday. Each term’s days are already there.
Jobs with headcounts
Positions such as “Lunch orders, 2 people” and “Counter, 1” put the right number of places on every date of that job.
Working days respected
A parent who works Wednesdays marks themselves away “Every week on Wednesday”, and Fill leaves them off those days.
Morning and lunch apart
Lunch orders at 8:45 and the counter at 12:30 are separate teams, each with its own times. A parent can be on both, and Fill never puts anyone in two places at overlapping times.
A link for the newsletter
Turn on the public roster and put the link in the newsletter. Families open it on any phone, as a list or a calendar, with nothing to install.
Set it up
- 01
Create the tuckshop
Create the organisation and a team for each job with its own times, such as Lunch orders and Counter.
- 02
Name the jobs
Add positions for each job with how many helpers it needs.
- 03
Add the families
Paste the list from the helper form, or share a join link in the newsletter.
- 04
Set the opening days
Click the first day the tuckshop opens, set the times and choose how it repeats.
- 05
Fill for the term
Press Fill for the next 3 months, cancel any pupil-free days, and share the link.
When you want it to run itself
Pro emails each parent who has accepted an invitation a reminder before their shift, and the convenor is emailed when someone says they can’t make it. With filling by itself on, the next family in line is put on and asked, so the gap is usually sorted before Friday morning.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Two helpers for the morning lunch orders and one or two at the counter suits most primary tuckshops. Ask your convenor how many orders a busy day brings, and set the headcounts to match.
- Pupil-free days, sports carnivals and the school holidays: cancel those dates one at a time. Each one can be brought back if plans change.
- Parents don’t book their own shifts: you set the days and FairTurns hands them out. Families see the result on the link.
- The public roster shows names to anyone with the link, so parents’ first names work well. Email addresses and away days never appear on it.
Questions
Does every parent need an account?
Only the ones who want to mark their own away days or get reminders. Everyone else can be added by name and still be rostered, printed and shown on the link.
Can a parent help every second week instead of every week?
Yes. Fill already shares the shifts across everyone, so a parent who is marked away on more days ends up with fewer turns. On Pro you can also set someone to Less often or Now and then.
We already have a club canteen roster for weekend sport. Can we use the same account?
Yes. Create a second organisation for the school tuckshop. Each one has its own teams, people and link, and a parent can belong to both.
What happens when the convenor changes next year?
Make the new convenor an administrator. The families, the opening days and the record of who changed what all stay with the organisation.
Is it really free?
Running the roster is free, with no limit on families or dates. Pro, with the reminder emails and automatic cover, is A$1 a month for the tuckshop, paid 1 to 5 years at a time.
Free templates and guides
Canteen roster template
Game-day canteen shifts with two families each, a BBQ spot and a float handover column.
How to run a canteen roster
Shift lengths, how many on, roster by family, the float and the first-timers: a canteen roster that works.
Public roster link
One read-only link anyone can open on a phone. No sign-in, nothing to install, no email addresses.
Similar rosters
P&C, PTA and parent associations
Uniform shop, fete stalls, discos and working bees: every P&C roster in one place, on one link.
Club canteen and kiosk
Every family takes a canteen shift, the season is mapped out, and one link shows who’s on.
Kindy and preschool parent help
Fruit, laundry and parent help days for each kindy group, with one link for every family.