Growing skills in schools
There’s a sense of wonder and achievement when children cook and eat food they have grown themselves, says Garden to Table Trust (GTT) Chairperson Catherine Bell.
Trustline, November 2010
The trust is working with four Auckland schools on pilot projects to teach students the skills of growing, preparing and cooking their own fruit and vegetables: East Tamaki Primary, Meadowbank Primary, Peninsula Primary in Te Atatu and Dawson Primary in Otara.
“The gardens are all organic, with compost and worm farms,” she says. “The students learn to get out there and squash the bugs and they develop a real pride in nurturing their gardens. There’s a sense of wonder in eating fresh produce you’ve grown yourself.”
GTT started in New Zealand two years ago and is modelled on the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program, which has been running in Australia for more than a decade. GTT supports and encourages the schools as they design and build the gardens, and community support gets the food preparation and cooking facilities built. GTT than provides two specialists – one for the garden, one for the kitchen – on a part-time basis for two years.
“The children get to grow, harvest, prepare and share,” Catherine says. “The other important thing is that the children are learning maths, art, history. It takes learning out of the classroom and into reality.”
An ASB Community Trust grant is supporting GTT as it helps Dawson Primary School set up its facilities. The grant will also pay for an evaluation of the project.
Meanwhile, ASB Community Trust is also offering grants of up to $5,000 for schools that want to set up their own environmental projects. This can include a shared garden where students are involved in planting, care and harvesting of vegetables, or the planting and care of native bush areas.
Hato Petera College, in Northcote, for example, has used the funding to set up its own sustainable organic kitchen garden.
For more details, contact the Trust, or visit our website and look under Learning in the Funding section.