Growing creativity in Australian schools

There’s something special about children and gardening, a feeling of positivity and hope for the future that has been an important part of the philosophy behind the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, which started in 2004. This year the foundation announced its inaugural National Kitchen Garden Awards to further encourage school communities in their gardening efforts, and to recognise the creativity of the many kitchen gardens in primary and secondary schools and early childhood services across Australia. The winners were announced September 11, 2024, with each program receiving a prize to the value of $5000. The winners of the nine categories, including First Nations Foods and Sustainable Solutions, were all celebrated for their amazing efforts to encourage children and young people to understand and connect with fresh, delicious food through fun, hands-on learning.  

Sustainable solutions

The students of Corowa Public School in NSW won the Sustainable Solutions award for their use of eco-friendly gardening practices such as composting, mulching, propagating and managing worm farms. The children (pictured above with one of their harvests) love to get involved in all the gardening fun, experimenting with composting and making their own banana tea. Their entry also explained they have a five-bin waste system in the school’s garden, for general, recycled, glass, soft plastics and food scraps, ensuring waste is managed efficiently. Recycled waste is used in the gardens, takeaway coffee cups to plant seeds, cardboard for compost heaps, shredded paper for worm bins. The hands-on approach to composting and recycling not only supports the garden, but also educates students about environmental impact and waste management.

Community comes first

One of the most heartwarming stories from the garden awards was the winners of the Beyond the Gate category. The winner was an initiative at John Pujajangka Piyirn School, located in a small remote indigenous community located in the south-east Kimberley region of Western Australia. The school started the program to involve all of their students across the two classes of Jarrampyi (Years 4-6) and Kipara (Kindergarten to Year 3) in the preparation, cooking and delivery of meals each Tuesday to the Elders in their community.

It’s a very small school so everyone helps, with the children heading into their garden to gather produce for the chosen recipes for the week. They then pop over to the school’s community store to buy any missing ingredients; an opportunity to learn numeracy and literacy skills. Back at school, the students prepare and cook the meals, filling up takeaway containers before heading out to walk around the community delivering meals to the Elders. Many of these Elders are also the students’ carers, so this program gives the children a chance to care for their Elders in return, creating a strong bond and community connection.  

It’s about fresh food

Sunbury Primary School in Victoria were the winners for the Level Up Your Veg award, which is all about the changes seen in students when they get to be hands-on in growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing nature’s greatest goodies. The Sunbury students planted a crop they had never grown before, the Jerusalem artichoke, and cooked their own chosen recipe with the gardens produce, Jerusalem artichoke tarts, in the schools kitchen. The students in grades 5/6 when planting the Jerusalem artichoke into their garden, which everyone calls The Patch, learnt about seed saving through tubers to create a continuous food supply they could use throughout the school term. The students combined two recipes into one, making their own pastry from scratch while using other crops grown from The Patch as well as fresh eggs from their chickens to create a unique and delicious treat. As the programme coordinators said in their entry: “This dish really became a ‘paddock to table’ reality for these students.”

For more information about the winners of the National Kitchen Garden Awards, click the link here: https://www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au/winners-national-kitchen-garden-awards-2024