Gippsland Seed Drive

Rain brought some relief in January and February this year to the fire-ravaged landscape of Gippsland Victoria, after it had already endured a three-year drought. As green shoots reappeared and rainfall changed the community’s landscape, COVID-19 hit. This is why we need you to help us sow a seed of hope for your fellow kitchen gardeners.

Andrea Kleehammer and the team at Gippsland Lakes Complete Health (GLCH) have been working in many of our kitchen garden schools as part of delivering health services and health promotion activities to the people of East Gippsland. Noticing the profound impact gardening and cooking had on their community, the team didn’t want to let the school’s kitchen garden programs slip through the cracks.

“At the moment we are trying to keep their garden beds alive,” said Andrea. GLCH set up a program of volunteers last term to help out in the gardens across their schools. The drive for volunteers meant meeting with local gardening clubs and putting a call out online to which they have had a great response. The team also started making seed packages to send home with students, each containing sprouts, cress and instructions on how to grow simply using absorbent paper. “It was great they could still get a sense of still watching something grow,” said Andrea.

The schools have been able to save some seeds from previous crops and replant them. However, as the students are slowly returning to school, we would love to see abundant gardens to help connect them in with growing, harvesting preparing and sharing.

How can you help?
We are asking the community to support fellow kitchen gardeners out by donating seeds. These may be collected from your own garden from previous harvests, extras stored away for a perfect seed-sowing day, or even purchased if you’re lucky to find a store not sold out. As the kitchen garden community stretches across Australia, we encourage you that if you are unsure which seeds you are allowed to send, please refer to this list.

The clusters of schools that your donations will bring a smile to include:

• Lakes Entrance Primary School
• Bruthen Primary School
• Clifton Creek Primary School
• Toorloo Arm Primary School
• Tambo Upper Primary School
• Nungurner Primary School
• Metung Primary School
• Paynesville Primary School
• St Brendan’s Primary School
• Lakes Entrance Secondary High School
• Lakes Entrance Child Care Centre
• Milestone Early Learning Lakes Entrance

Please send your clearly labelled seeds and your well wishes to:
Gippsland Lakes Complete Health, PO Box 429 Lakes Entrance, VIC 3909 

Feel free to let us know about your seed drive on the Shared Table.