Best Bites Food Award win for school kitchen garden cafe

With a café that serves up delicious, seasonal food using produce from its own kitchen garden it’s easy to see why St Joseph’s Primary School won a Best Bites Food Award!

The Crib Point school won the school canteen/childcare category in the Mornington Peninsula Shire awards, and were presented with the honour on 9 May in Rosebud by our CEO Ange Barry – who judged the award category.

Ange said she was honoured to be asked by Mornington Peninsula Shire to help judge the awards, and had really enjoyed visiting the five finalists in the award category.

“It was a great opportunity to see the fantastic things schools and early years learning centres on the Mornington Peninsula are achieving in their kitchen gardens and canteens,” Ange said. “I was really impressed with the kitchen garden at St Joseph’s and the lovely food they serve in their café.”

Joey’s Café is open fortnightly on a Friday at the school, and is run by the school’s chef Matt Demarte (whose son attends the school) and Grade 6 students.

The café is open to members of the public and the students regularly serve up to 36 people a meal made using fresh produce from the school’s garden.

The day the Foundation visited the school we enjoyed a hearty and flavoursome meal of kale, tomato, zucchini & bean stew; focaccia; broad bean & feta salad; and herb yoghurt.

St Joseph’s students Caitlin and Chloe, who helped accept the Best Bites Award with Matt, said they loved helping run the café and tending to the school garden, and also enjoyed helping train the Grade 5 students who will take over running the café next year.

Congratulations to St Joseph’s Primary on their award win and to the other finalists in the category: Balnarring Early Learning Centre; Capel Sounds Educational Child Care Centre; Toorak College, Mt Eliza; and Western Port Child Care Centre & Kindergarten, Hastings.

To see the fantastic kitchen garden and café fare at St Joseph’s Primary, as well as some of the gardens at the other finalist schools and centres, scroll through the gallery of photos above.

For more information on the Best Bites Awards head to the Mornington Peninsula Shire’s website.