Primary Schools
Stephanie Alexander launched the pilot Kitchen Garden Program in 2001. The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is now supporting schools and early childhood services of all sizes to deliver pleasurable food education.
Not sure where to get started? Book into our online information sessions. We'll introduce you to how pleasurable food education can benefit your school and community, as well as the first steps in how you can deliver your own kitchen garden program.
The Kitchen Garden Program offers educators a comprehensive package of educational resources alongside individualised support and professional development, to ensure your program flourishes.
“Each week after kitchen and garden classes, students undertake literacy and numeracy follow-up activities, such as writing procedural texts, writing narratives based in the kitchen or garden, identifying origins of food from around the world and drawing maps of the garden.” – Louisa Carey, Program Coordinator, Hallam Primary School, Victoria
Benefits for children
Some of the main benefits that a kitchen garden program provides for students are listed here.
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Positive food behaviours: Students learn how to grow, cook, eat and share fresh, delicious, nutritious food.
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Connectedness with the outdoors: Students learn about their natural environment, the seasons, and how to care for gardens.
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Practical skills: Students learn a number of skills, from recycling, composting and preserving to budgeting and fundraising.
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Life skills: Students learn essential life-long skills, such as cooperating, sharing, critical thinking and leadership.
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Engagement: The hands-on approach of the Kitchen Garden Program sparks enthusiasm, especially for students who face barriers learning in the traditional classroom environment.
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Wellbeing: Students develop positive relationships with peers and adults, building a sense of connectedness and having fun!
Benefits for schools
Kitchen garden programs also provide a number of benefits for schools.
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A hub for community engagement: Educators, families, students, business owners and the broader community can enjoy coming together to share food and learn.
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Social awareness and responsibility: The Program promotes an understanding within the school community of the importance of food systems, food security and sustainability.
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Strengthened school communities: Opportunities are created to recruit volunteers to develop flourishing school communities. A kitchen garden provides a sense of purpose for volunteers to work together on school projects and activities.
Links to the curriculum
Discover countless opportunities for embedding pleasurable food education into the curriculum. Kitchen garden learning can be integrated with learning requirements, from measuring garden areas and perimeters in mathematics to exploring seed growth in science, developing procedural text through recipes and sharing cultures through menus and celebrations.
A kitchen garden program can also support wellbeing programs, cross-age tutoring between students, inquiry learning, project- or problem-based learning and interdisciplinary approaches, such as STEM.
Hungry to get started?
Become a member today and join a community of primary schools teaching students how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal, delicious food.
Kitchen Garden membership inclusions
- 24-month Program membership
- 2 x Getting Started webinar places development places
- 2 x program enrichment webinar places
- One-on-one catchups
- Access to face-to-face professional development
- Shared Table – resource and community hub
- Print resource package including:
- Getting Started: A Guide to Establishing a Kitchen Garden Program
- Kitchen Garden Syllabus for Primary (Years F-2) Books 1 and 2
- Kitchen Garden Syllabus for Primary (Years 3-6) Books 1 to 4
- Literacy & Numeracy in the Kitchen and Garden
- Kitchen Garden Program Seasonal Planner
- Trellis – online, individualised support tool
- Class set of aprons (x 25)
- Discounts on printed resources
- Foundation partner discounts
Price: $1650
2-year renewal: $440
Complete online form to join today
For further information or support with your program, contact our Support Team on 13000 SAKGF (13000 72543) or membership@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au