STEPHANIE ALEXANDER KITCHEN GARDEN PROGRAM

SAKG is a pleasurable food and garden program where kids are involved in hands on learning to grow fruit and vegetables and bring them into the kitchen to cook. Students  are supported to work in small teams that rotate through tasks, so they get to do a bit of everything in the kitchen and garden.

 

In the garden harvesting produce and caring for the animals, chooks and guinea pigs, is very popular.  Students learn how to ‘grow’ and the importance of looking after the soil, by making and using compost, as it contributes to the overall health of the garden. We also have ‘observe’ and ‘create’ teams whereby students take time to notice what's happening in the garden when creating an ongoing community garden journal and participating in other creative tasks. 

 

In the kitchen the purpose of the program is to take a hands on approach to teaching children about fresh, seasonal, and delicious food so that they can form positive eating habits.  This approach empowers children and young people to develop practical skills, an appreciation of seasonal produce, and a positive, confident and healthy relationship with food.  The program incorporates environmental objectives as well, teaching children about food waste and how to avoid it, encouraging seasonal and fresh produce which have a smaller environmental footprint.  

 

To this end we make a menu based on seasonal produce that is often grown and harvested by the students right here in the school, a menu consisting of a salad, a main dish, a bread or baked dish, and a dessert.  In the process of rotating through those various cooking activities the students are learning many basic cooking skills and terminology, which has connections to literacy, numeracy and STEM, and connects many of those aspects in a very real way to ongoing life skills and potential careers.  In addition, we foster a positive relationship with food by setting tables and sharing the dishes that we have made by eating together.   We have recently incorporated a preserving group into our rotation to ensure that we are teaching the benefits of reducing food waste, and hopefully contributing to a more sustainable approach to food, in the future.