Grow, Harvest, Prepare, Share in Early Childhood

The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation extends its pleasurable food education to Early Childhood Settings.

The Kitchen Garden Program for Early Childhood was developed in consultation with the early childhood community over a three-year period and promotes a whole-service, play-based approach to delivering pleasurable food education to young children.

“The Kitchen Garden Foundation has come a long way since I started my campaign to offer pleasurable food education to primary school children in 2001. I am proud to extend our successful kitchen garden program to early childhood services across Australia so that even younger children can experience the pleasures of growing and preparing food. We want to see more and more early childhood services join our movement so every Australian child can learn to love good food and look after our planet,” said Stephanie Alexander AO, Founder of the Kitchen Garden Foundation.

Research tells us that the earlier positive food relationships are normalised the more likely children are to enjoy fresh, seasonal, delicious food into adulthood. In 2018, more than 30 per cent of all children aged 0-12 years attended some form of approved child care where they spent an average of 24 hours per week. This offers a great opportunity for early childhood education settings to influence the eating habits of our youngest generation.

Armed with this knowledge, and increasing interest from the early childhood sector, the Kitchen Garden Foundation adapted its successful kitchen garden program for primary schools so that children can develop positive food habits from as early in life as possible.

Together with leaders and advocates in early childhood education, we developed a comprehensive package of tailored professional development, educational resources and support services specifically designed to guide educators and service providers to run the Kitchen Garden Program for Early Childhood. This program is the first of its kind; there is currently no other kitchen garden program for pre-school aged children in Australia.

The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program for Early Childhood was made possible with support from The Ian Potter Foundation’s Alec Prentice Sewell Gift.

For more information or to become a member, contact our Support Team on 13000 SAKGF (13000 72543) or support@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au