Shared Table Awards 2024

Our online resource library and community hub has continued to flourish in 2024 and it’s a joy for our team to observe our Kitchen Garden Program members connecting with each other and sharing kitchen garden learning from all states, territories and sectors. 

Our annual Shared Table Awards is a chance for us to deep dive into all the posts educators have shared throughout the year and pick out our favourite stories and tips from around the country. Without any further ado, here are this year’s winners!

Staff Choice Awards

We’ve rummaged through over 1,300 posts, and selected our favourite posts for our Staff Choice Awards, voted by the staff in our Support Team.
 

Staff Choice – Early Childhood

Winner: Gladys Smith Early Learning Centre, South Australia

Young children love the tactile experiences of cooking, especially when it comes to dough-based recipes like the delish pizza scrolls made at Gladys Smith Early Learning Centre. We loved this photo of a child getting absolutely stuck into the rolling process!The runner up in this category was East Sale Kindergarten, Victoria for their heartwarming signage protecting the delicate yellow ladybugs in their garden.

Staff Choice – Primary School

Winner: Casterton Primary School, Victoria

What a wonderful example of students leading their Kitchen Garden Program and contributing to decision making. Students used the PMI format (plus, minus and interesting) to learn about constructive feedback and use it to reflect on their kitchen class experiences. The runner up in this category was Newbury Primary School, Victoria for their unique fundraising idea for getting new seeds for their kitchen garden. 

 
Staff Choice - Secondary School

Winner: Mount Rowan Secondary College, Victoria

It’s always a joy to see students enjoying the fruits of their labour. In this case, the ‘fruits’ were Mount Rowan’s zucchini harvest piled on top of grilled sourdough bread, and bocconcini and drizzled with olive oil.  It was also lovely to see comments on this post from Kitchen Garden Specialists who recognised their former primary students in the photo. They remarked how special it was to get a glimpse of how their student’s kitchen garden journey has continued into adolescence. The runner up in this category was Holland Street School in West Australia for their awesome wheelbarrow license action shot. 

 
Staff Choice – Wonderful Wobble

Cooking and gardening are rarely without a few hiccups here and there, which is why we have the ‘Wonderful Wobble’ category. We’ll never learn if nothing goes wrong, so this award celebrates Kitchen Garden Program members who experienced a misstep in their kitchen garden journey but still persevered. 

Winner: Plumpton House School, New South Wales

Plumpton House School didn’t give up when their first attempt at growing Brussels sprouts sadly resulted in a moldy plant. They tried again, this time with a new position, different companion plants, feeding every fortnight with Seasol along with weeding and watering regularly. Students even did a deep dive on YouTube for more pro tips and learned that removing the bottom leaves of the plant allows for more light and air flow. The result? A bountiful harvest, paired with smoked bacon and homemade croutons. An official review from one student shared how their opinion of sprouts went from, “just ok to these are great!”. The runner up in this category was Telarah Public School, New South Wales and their funky looking lemons. 

Community Choice Awards

We’ve crunched the numbers to determine our most popular resources, recipes and guides. Plus, we’ve identified the most active schools and services in 2024. 

Most active user: North Melbourne Primary School, Victoria 

The 'most active user' winner is calculated based on the number of likes, comments and posts made by the school or service. In this case the winner, North Melbourne Primary School, posted 872 comments, 861 likes and 117 activities. 

Highest number of posts: Wendouree Primary School, Victoria 

Most garden posts: St Joseph's Catholic Primary School (Werribee)

Most kitchen posts: Wendouree Primary School, Victoria

Most popular resource: What’s new in professional development

Most popular collection: Posters collection 

Runner up collection: Wild weather garden activity collection 

Most popular recipe: Basic pizza dough

Most popular recipe collection: First Nations ingredients collection

Most popular garden activity: Tool license test, answers and template

Most popular lesson plan: Knife skills video demonstration

Most popular guide: Getting Started Guide – digital download

Congratulations to all the schools and services featured in the Shared Table Awards and a massive thank you to everyone who engaged with our online resource library and community hub in 2024. We can’t wait to see what you get up to next year!

Interested in joining the Kitchen Garden Program in 2025? Take a look at our membership options and join us at our next free info session.