High school kids learn to cook, grow food in kitchen garden program
One in three teens does not know how to cook a potato, and one in five can’t even boil an egg but now two NSW high schools are trialling a new program which teaches teens where good food comes from and how to cook it.
NSW
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One in three teens do not know how to bake a potato, six out of 10 do not know how to roast a chicken and nearly one in five has no idea how to boil an egg.
But almost all of them know about hot chips, microwaved meals and takeaways.
Now the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program is hoping to change that around by launching into high schools.
The senior school program had a trial in Victoria in late 2018 and will now be offered to students at both Liverpool Girls High and Orange High School in NSW.
It teaches the paddock to plate principle. Students will grow, raise chickens and combine with a “breakfast club” to feed students a healthy breakfast.
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Liverpool Deputy Principal Linda Jurcevic said the students will make homemade pancakes, eat eggs and grow herbs, tomatoes and lettuce.
“We are a fast food society and the kids are eating whatever is easier,” she said.
“We are so close to the shops at Liverpool and it is easy for the kids to pick up McDonald’s.
“We can educate the kids about planting and saving money. The plan is to get the parents involved to educate them as well.”
One in four adolescents are either overweight or obese, and those statistics double once teens graduate with 46 per cent obese or overweight between the ages of 18 and 24.
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation survey revealed the need for more food education.
One in three teens admit to eating fast food once a week, one in four indulge in hot chips weekly and 58 per cent had microwaved food once a week.
Only a quarter consider the sugar content of food, only one in five considered fat content and over half don’t know how many serves of fruit and vegetables they should be eating a day.
Stephanie Alexander, founder of the Kitchen Garden concept that runs in 500 NSW public schools, said food education can help teenagers learn healthy habits.
“Learning to know and love fresh, seasonal, delicious food is as basic as understanding where food comes from and learning a few simple cooking skills,” she said.
“This gives young people a lot of confidence.
“Our program is designed to get students’ hands dirty and experience the thrill of growing their own fruit, vegetables and herbs. Then turning their harvest into delicious meals to share with their classmates.
“There’s nothing like it to create a sense of pride and achievement.”
Kitchen Garden Foundation CEO Josephene Duffy said the program, funded by AstraZeneca, hoped to change our “fast food nation”.
“We want to empower young people to make positive choices around food and give them the skills and experience to form great relationships with food throughout their lives,” Ms Duffy said.
“At present, they lack the confidence to make those choices based on what food really is and where it comes from.
“We are trying to default that norm of young people opting for overly processed, high fat, high sugar fast food.”