A momentous day for Australian pleasurable food education

On Friday 13 March we announced two huge milestones:

• The achievement of our Australian Government and Medibank Community Fund partnership goal of bringing the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program to 10% of all Australian schools with a primary curriculum – 800 in total, now servicing around 100,000 children across Australia.
• The launch of a new Membership service will provide pleasurable food education to all Australian Early Learning Centres, Primary Schools and Secondary Schools.

These are huge milestones for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, and we’d like to share the proceedings with you …

CEO Ange Barry introduced proceedings and highlighted how the work of the schools and the support of the community has been the backbone of this success …

‘We’re incredibly proud to be celebrating the 800^th Kitchen Garden Program School, and the success of the project leads directly into being able to open our new Membership service. The 800 Program schools are great pleasurable food education models that will continue to inspire learning across the country. While in the past we’ve had to limit access to the primary sector, we can now also welcome early learning centres, secondary school into the kitchen garden community – and we are emphasising the welcome!

We also know that community change requires a whole-of-community approach. That’s why we’re so proud to share our success with our friends, partners and supporters here today, such as our Principal Partner, Medibank, as well as the Victorian Government.

We look forward to continuing to expand this Victorian-grown program across Australia, forging a ground-breaking community that will change the way generations think about fresh, seasonal, delicious food.’

Stephanie of course was thrilled to see this huge milestone, which will see this pleasurable food education grow from one school in 2001, to 800 currently, and potentially thousands in the very near future …

In 2001 I persuaded the then Principal of Collingwood College to let me try to show how involving students in growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing some of their own food was the best way of convincing students to become more open to new flavours, learn new skills, and to better understand the connection between fresh food, the shared table and wellbeing.  I knew from my own life (thanks Mum) the power of a positive model.

The welcome surprise was the almost immediate rush of community support and encouragement. The expected result (‘I told you so’ I could say to the few cynics) was the beaming faces and enthusiasm of all of the students as they dug holes, hammered in plant supports, or rolled their own pasta dough, and the wholesale delight as they tucked into their own spinach and cheese pie and green salad.

With the game-changing support we received from the Victorian Labor Government, the state truly led the way in what is now a national program. Big schools, little schools, rural and remote schools, special schools, it works for all of them. We have inspired projects as far away as New Zealand, the Tiwi Islands, the Phillipines, Uganda, Turkey and the UK, and in May I am visiting a school in Peru where the program is operating in a school for children with Down Syndrome. 

We knew that this program had to integrate with the curriculum in schools. It had to assist teachers not burden them. We have developed amazing resources for teachers, and have provided support to our schools in many ways.

My dream was always to make pleasurable food education available to every student in primary school and, just maybe, to extend the vision even further. I think we are about to do this.’

Medibank Managing Director George Savvides shared how proud he was to have our two organisations working to change health behaviour in this country …

‘I’m absolutely delighted to be celebrating this milestone today, a milestone that we have been working with the Foundation towards since we began our partnership three years ago. At Medibank we’re committed to creating better health outcomes for all Australians and the next generation (who are currently working tirelessly to prepare our healthy morning tea!)

‘Our commitment to better health is at the core of everything we do and our partnership with the Foundation is an extension of our purpose. We believe that better health starts with every day, through our day-to-day activities, whether it’s walking to the bus stop, riding the bike to work or cooking for the family. What we also know is that in addition to initiatives such as these we can bring about real health change if we work with communities. We’re serious about this as a business and we know the health impacts that can be continued to be achieved if we continue to do this. It’s the reason why we invest one per cent of our pre-tax profits to supporting community organisations and not-for-profits such as the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, who encourage everyone to live healthier, happier lives. We are thrilled that Medibank’s contribution has supported the introduction of the Kitchen Garden Program to 800 schools and has exceeded our partnership objectives of the program reaching 100,000 or 10 per cent of Australian school children by 2015.’ 

North Melbourne Principal Sally Naylor shared the history of the Kitchen Garden Program on the school and emphasised the curriculum integration that is at the heart of it…

‘At our school the Kitchen Garden Program is a part of our main curriculum, it is not an add-on. All children across the school are taught to respect and enjoy the garden and the cooking is integrated across the year for all Year 3-6 children; however the kitchen also becomes a ‘place of research and science’ when the Prep, Ones or Twos are studying food or nutrition or kitchen chemistry!

We have families who constantly discuss what their children bring home from the kitchen or garden: we grew this, I ate or I cooked this.

Literacy and numeracy skills are included and explicitly taught through the program, and there is a sense of engagement and interest that spreads across the whole school because of it.

A few years ago we were very interested in developing an ELC [early learning centre] on site, however space constraints ruled this out; imagine the interest that those children would have in an adaptation of the Kitchen Garden Program  … and I now have a son at secondary school who delights in the subject of horticulture and is cooking in Year 8 – to combine the two at secondary school would be an incredible advantage to the constant separation of subjects that are taught in secondary schools.’

Luckily for all attendees, the wonderful students and staff at North Melbourne PS had cooked up an absolute feast:

• Tomato & basil mini pizza
• Kohl rabi & mint rice paper rolls
• Zucchini chips (polenta coated, oven baked)
• Summer vegetable & feta kourkota (Greek polenta egg based pie/slice)
• Baba ghonouj & vegetables
• Roast pumpkin dip.

So we adjourned to the school kitchen, shared the delicious food, chatted to the students, staff and each other, and enjoyed our big day. It really was a wonderful event all round, of course we can’t go without hearing a few words from a student:

Alex, 11, who has taken part in the Kitchen Garden Program since Year 3, said he loved cooking: ‘Cooking, it’s something for everyone. It’s something that’s fun to do,’ he said. ‘I think it’s good for young people to learn cooking, because cooking can be a lifetime thing … it can help you later in life. Alex said he also enjoyed getting out in the garden and seeing all the plants grow. I like looking at all the trees and plants, it shows how much the garden’s progressed since I started the Kitchen Garden Program.’

Thank you to all who came – we are so grateful for your support. Thanks especially to the students and staff at North Melbourne PS, especially Kitchen Specialist Sam George, Year 3 teacher Matt Coley, Year 6 teacher Cat Coley, Principal Sally Karlovic, the amazing Grade 6 students who cooked up a scrumptious storm, and the always dedicated and committed volunteers who are vital to the success of the program in the school.

Thank you all!