National Kitchen Garden Awards 2025

To recognise the tremendous creativity of kitchen gardens in schools and early childhood services of all sizes, we are excited to reveal that the National Kitchen Garden Awards are back for a second year!  

From before-school breakfast clubs,  student-led compost initiatives  or experimenting in your school kitchen with garden-grown veg, the National Kitchen Garden Awards  celebrate the inventive, community-driven ways educators and young Australians are using their kitchen garden to learn about health, wellbeing and sustainability. 

These awards are open to all early childhood services, primary schools and secondary schools across Australia, and you do not need to be a member of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program to apply. 

The prize pack! 

Over $4000 in value will be gifted to each of the nine category winners. Have a look at what's on offer: 

• A $1000 grant to advance kitchen and garden infrastructure. 

• A kitchen garden product pack including: 

  • A WaterUps bundle with an Oasis 1680 wicking bed, two square planters, a flexi garden bed cover, and a reservoir level indicator.
  • Natural, organic garden solutions from Seasol. 
  • Fleming’s Nurseries voucher. 
  • 12-month subscription to ABC Organic Gardener Magazine. 
  • 2L cask of Mount Zero Olives’ Frantoio extra virgin olive oil. 
  • Premium Indigiearth native cooking ingredients. 
  • A custom-designed timber watering can trophy from Tiger Corp 
  • Signed copies of Stephanie Alexander’s beloved Fresh and A Cook’s Life.  
  • A copy of Alice Zaslavsky's seasonal reference guide, Salad for Days.

• A two-year membership to the globally recognised Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. Already a member? Enjoy a two-year extension of your membership instead. Membership includes: 

  • Professional development opportunities in-person and online. 
  • 1000+ recipes, lesson plans and activities on our online resource library and our community hub the Shared Table. 
  • A printed resources package with all the workbooks and inspiration to get started. 
  • Five days a week Support Team offering personalised advice. 

The celebrity judges! 

Stephanie Alexander, Clarence Slockee, Thanh 'Fruit Nerd' Truong and Alice Zaslavsky will be eagerly reviewing the finalists of each category and making their selection of the most creative, resourceful and green-thumbed stories out there.

Winners will be announced at a special Kitchen Garden Month celebration hosted by Stephanie Alexander at Kilkenny Primary School in Adelaide, on Tuesday 16 September 2025. 

Whether you're nurturing a tiny garden on wheels, or experimenting in your school kitchen, we're celebrating all levels of ingenuity and passion. We're not just after the biggest yields or the most polished dishes – show us your boldest attempts, your most daring experiments and your cleverest upcycles. Let your creativity bloom and your flavours shine. We can’t wait to read your stories! 

How to apply 

Entries are open to early childhood, primary schools and secondary schools who either run a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program or dream of joining the program to support their existing kitchen or garden learning. Enter one or all of the award categories! 

Entry is simple. Answer a question about your project in 200 words or less to go into the running. Images are optional, but encouraged. 

Learn about each category below, then click through to enter. Good luck!  

Applications close at 9:30 am on Friday 15 August.   

Beyond the School Gate presented by Novo Nordisk Cities for Better Health  
Show us some great examples of how your school’s kitchen or garden has had ripple effects beyond your school gates. Have your students taken your excess produce to a local market? Have you partnered with a local organisation and brought in wonderful community volunteers to help your garden flourish? Enter now. 

Down to Earth presented by ABC Organic Gardener Magazine
Show us how you get down-to-earth, getting your hands dirty understanding and shaping the soils that grow and nurture your kitchen garden. Demonstrate the magical power of worms in your garden, learning the benefits of organic nutrients or how boosting soil health can yield amazing results. Enter now.

First Nations Foods presented by Indigiearth 
We’d love to see how schools are incorporating First Nations Food into their learnings. Do you have a bush tucker garden? Do you plan according to your local Indigenous season? Have you used Australian native ingredients to make delicious dishes? Enter now. 

Flower Power presented by ABC Gardening Australia Magazine 
Share the colour, joy and vibrancy your kitchen garden brings to your local environment. We want to hear about how your kitchen garden has attracted buzzing pollinators, grown the tallest sunflowers, boosted local biodiversity or offered up beautiful bouquets for your shared feasts. Whether it's a calming space for reflection or a bright touch of edible flowers in the kitchen, share the power of flowers and the beauty that your kitchen garden grows. Enter now.  

Recipe of the Imagination presented by General Mills 
Get your creative juices flowing! We’d love to see original recipe creations from educators and their class. What have you been cooking up in the kitchen with fresh, seasonal and delicious produce? Enter now.

Sustainable Solutions presented by Costa Group
Share some of the ways you’ve learned about sustainable practices in the kitchen or garden. Have you initiated composting, recycling, reusing, or reducing? Have you minimised food waste with pro pickling and preserving? Perhaps you’ve explored climate change and actioned preventive practices in the garden? Enter now. 

The Art of Kitchen Gardening presented by MSP Compass 
The garden and fresh ingredients often inspire storytelling and artistic pursuits. Show us how you’re encouraging creativity with your class through the kitchen garden. Enter now.

Water Wise Design presented by WaterUps 
Has your school or early childhood service embraced smart, sustainable garden  design to make the most of every drop? This award celebrates innovative approaches to water-efficient gardening and resourceful thinking. Tell us how your garden promotes water conservation through wicking systems, time-efficient irrigation, drought-tolerant plants or thoughtful layout. Have your students designed their garden to make it easier to maintain with limited time and support? We’re looking for examples of practical garden design that supports environmental learning, reduces maintenance workload and helps school and ELC gardens thrive with confidence. Enter now.

Wellbeing Champions presented by Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation
We know getting hands-on in the kitchen and garden is great for our mental health, fitness and wellbeing. Show us how your activities have improved the wellbeing of your students. Does your garden offer a space to reflect, connect, or simply relax? Do you gather around a table to share healthy, delicious meals and conversation? Enter now.

We can’t wait to celebrate green thumbs and budding chefs from around the country!

If you have any questions about the awards or the Kitchen Garden Program, please contact our Support Team at info@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au or 1300 072 543. 

For any media queries, please contact Audrey Bourget, Communications Lead: audrey.bourget@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au.

With thanks to our award category partners

With thanks to our prize partners