Seaforth Public and Manly West deliver the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program
Seaforth Public and Manly West are part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program.
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THE texta tip on the classroom wall is simple and clear. The words in the red bubble under the Sustainability in the Kitchen heading reads: “Use the stuff from the garden”.
“Stuff” is primary school language.
This collective noun describes produce grown and harvested by junior gardeners and prepared and cooked by junior chefs in the school’s bespoke candy-coloured commercial kitchen.
Students at Seaforth Public School benefit from an engaging teaching experience, kitchen garden teacher Nada Burke said.
“I work with senior students, they learn about food they eat by growing it, preparing it and cooking it,” Ms Burke said.
“They also sit down at the end of the lesson and eat what they have made.”
Year 5 and 6 students spent their last lesson of term two hosting a mini conference. The special event finished with an alfresco long table lunch featuring a smorgasbord of healthy options.
The selection of mini quiches, pasta with homemade sauces, pumpkin and spinach rolls and a few treats had been frozen for the event.
The cook-up included the final batch of homemade tomato sauce.
“We grew 150kg of tomatoes in the garden over summer,” she said.
“I’m not sure how many different tomato sauce recipes we tried.”
The high school food technology teacher and her outdoor counterpart, Alex Huntington, came on board two years ago to deliver the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.
Ms Burke teaches 30 students in a purpose-built $80,000 kitchen classroom-cum-school canteen.
The space is bright and airy with folding doors, recycled timber units, stainless-steel workbenches and new appliances. It’s far removed from its former use as a dank, dark storage area.
Ms Burke engages students with program recipes and scans websites and magazines to develop seasonal healthy recipes that will appeal to young palates.
An abundance of eggplant can become meatballs, fresh herbs turn into pesto and a variety of chopped vegetables reappear as stir-fried noodles.
“Fried rice is one of the most popular dishes,” Ms Burke said.
“It’s a good way of getting students to eat vegetables and children will often try new ingredients they won’t eat at home.”
The program works alongside the school curriculum. Nasi goreng has been an ideal introduction to Indonesia. Maths lessons are reworked as recipe calculations, Ms Burke said.
Gardening and healthy eating became part of the Yatama St campus through the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation.
Seaforth Public was the first northern beaches primary school to apply for a grant to establish an organic kitchen garden in 2011.
School parent Ros Young was the driving force behind the project becoming reality after seeing a similar project in Noosa.
“There was a real need for a hands-on sustainable food education program,” Ms Young said.
“The project has a lot of long-term health benefits for students.”
Ms Young, a long-time volunteer, said that the initiative focused on sustainability, caring for the environment and taught important life skills.
Principal Bernard Cheng said the $220,000 project is an investment for the future.
“If we were going to do the project, we had to do it properly,” he said. “It is a big commitment and some parents were sceptical at first, but now we can see the results.”
Aware of growing obesity issues and a lack of knowledge on life skills including growing and preparing food, Melbourne-based chef and food writer Stephanie Alexander set up the pilot program at Collingwood College in 2001.
The Kitchen Garden Foundation followed in 2004, Foundation chief executive Anna Barry said.
“Stephanie spent three years getting the model right,” Ms Barry said. “The program is flexible but there are core elements and we integrate the community through the program.”
The full program has already been rolled out to 830 schools across Australia. The number accounts for 10 per cent of all primary schools, Ms Barry said.
Sydney alone has 30 participating schools including Bondi Public, Stanmore Public and Manly West Public, the only other local school.
The Griffiths St primary school kitchen garden operates on a much smaller scale. The outdoor classroom does have a bush garden and five chickens.
School-grown produce is harvested and used in practical lessons where food is made and shared, and the school canteen.
Any surplus is sold on after-school market stalls.
There is no on-site purpose built kitchen, instead the school — like many others — adapts the model and uses the barbecues and electric fry pans to deliver classes.
The flexible program is a Year 3 project and it delivers a quality learning experience, deputy principal Adrienne Bruce said.
“Kids have ownership, they are engaged and empowered,” Ms Bruce said.
“It is a rich learning experience and it is constantly evolving.”
The program also connects with the wider community, she said.
The school organises a working bee every term. The next one will be on July 30.
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