Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation launches the Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years
Ground-breaking food education program now available for secondary schools around Australia
To celebrate the launch of the Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years, Australian high schools can win one of two membership packages and $3,500 towards their own kitchen garden for 2021.
The pilot program, involving 14 schools across regional and metropolitan NSW and Victoria, showed two in three students reported increased confidence in growing and / or cooking fresh food, and more than half of the students had been inspired to start growing fresh food at home. With the vision of inspiring students to form positive food habits for life, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation has supported Australian primary schools to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal delicious food since its inception in 2004.
Based on a growing demand from the kitchen garden community and evidence showing the need for this kind of program in adolescent years, expanding the program into secondary years was a must. Which is why in 2018 the Foundation partnered with AstraZeneca Australia under their global Young Health Programme initiative to design a pioneering program that fosters positive food habits in Australian secondary school students. Now ready to launch, The Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years is the first of its kind – a curriculum-integrated kitchen garden program designed for secondary school students in Australia. There were 1115 secondary students aged 12–18 that participated in the pilot during 2020 and 822 during 2018-19, with more than 110 educators involved.
“My intention right from Day One was to develop a school-based program of food education that would be enjoyable, engaging and have meaningful impact on the food choices of our children. I know that I am the food-lover I am today because I grew up experiencing delicious family food around a table every day. The food reflected the weather, the state of the garden, or something special that had a story attached. The stories were as important as the flavours. I learnt very early that ‘helping’ in the kitchen and the garden always led to learning something new and interesting. I’m now excited to see the program, and its benefits expand to secondary schools. No matter the age of the student this program can deliver curriculum-linked rich and engaging activities that I believe will lead to better-informed and healthier food habits.” – Stephanie Alexander AO, Founder of the Kitchen Garden Foundation.
AstraZeneca Country President Australia New Zealand, Liz Chatwin, said the company had supported the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation to support the development of healthy habits in the community from a young age. “Supporting the development and now launch of the Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years is wholly aligned with our global Young Health Programme, which aims to instil and embed long-lasting health benefits in the community. The results of the pilot program have been fantastic for individual students, schools and their communities, even during the challenges of 2020, and we are thrilled to see this innovative, curriculum-based program rolled out across Australia. Over the past three years our team has been involved in activities at the schools, and this year online, to really understand the value of this unique program,” she said.
The Kitchen Garden Foundation has collaborated closely with the following pilot schools across Victoria and New South Wales: Clonard College; Cobden Technical School; Drouin Secondary College (and Blackwood Centre for Adolescent Development as an annexe); Elwood College; Heywood and District Secondary College; Liverpool Girls High School; Mordialloc College; Narre Warren South P–12 College; Numurkah Secondary College; Orange High School; St Bernard’s College; Werribee Secondary College; Western Heights College. These pilot schools have been pivotal in implementing and trialling the Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years.
“Our pilot schools, advisory committee and staff have worked really hard to co-design a program that will work for secondary schools of all types. This flexible model is adaptable to all school environments and can address and enhance a broad range of goals and challenges. We’re looking forward to seeing older kids digging into their gardens, learning to love beautiful fresh food, having a lot of fun and doing a lot of learning along the way. ”
– Josephene Duffy, CEO
The Kitchen Garden Program provides multiple benefits to secondary schools. The program can enhance learning outcomes, create work pathways, support student wellbeing and student engagement, foster opportunities for meaningful community engagement, reinforce environmental sustainability, and most importantly students develop positive food behaviours through growing, cooking, eating and sharing fresh, delicious, nutritious food.
“This program has really got me interested … we started making changes to the school and I felt really proud about what we were doing. It just got me interested and then I just tried to follow a career around it”- Year 12 student
To celebrate the launch, two secondary schools can win $3,500 and a Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years membership package to contribute towards infrastructure for their own kitchen garden program. Simply answer, “What does your school’s dream kitchen garden program look like?”. We encourage school to involve students and include their voice in the submission – this could include, a student produced video, garden design or vision board. Read the full terms and conditions here. Secondary schools can access kitchen garden membership here.