By Mikayla van Loon
Kilsyth’s Gladesville Primary School officially launched and opened its newly replenished kitchen garden with a visit from a special guest on Thursday 8 September.
Having received a grant from Australian chef, restaurateur and food writer Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Foundation, the school was able to turn the dilapidated space into an outdoor learning environment for the whole school.
Buildings and grounds committee lead Melissa Strangio designed and organised the entire project with the help of some enthusiastic parent volunteers known as Gladesville Gardeners (GGs).
“It was time to get reinvigorated, time to get children’s wellbeing back on track and things like that with a kitchen garden,” she said.
Starting late last year when allowed back on school grounds, Melissa and the GGs cleaned out the space and installed compost bins, with the grand plan of designing wicking garden beds and an orchard.
Receiving the grant from Stephanie Alexander’s foundation meant this dream could be more of a reality and she was overjoyed to see what could be done with one of her grants.
“Some people think it’s an impossible dream for their school. Really the message I’d like to put out there is if the school values their children learning about lovely fresh food, it is not a difficult thing to do,” she said.
From a young age Stephanie had an appreciation for fresh food, something she wants to pass onto the next generation who may not have had the opportunity or pleasure at home.
“Diversity is very important in this program and having an appreciation of our diverse community and that’s the way I grew up but so many children for one reason or another are not having contact with soil or not eating together as a family.
“We find the students themselves respond very quickly. The school community usually responds very positively to having a kitchen garden program in their school and parents are astonished at what it does for their kids.
“Time and time again, we hear a parent say, ‘my child is now so much more interested in trying something different and wants to help or wants to make suggestions when we go to the shop’.”
Stephanie said more than that too, growing fruit and vegetables in a garden gives students a better understanding of when something is in season and what might taste the best.
As an added bonus, Gladesville Primary School was also able to receive help from General Mills, who shovelled mulch and helped with the planting.
“It’s so terrific to see community organisations and locals, parents and everybody wanting such a lovely thing for their school. We know just how much of a difference it makes in the lives of the kids in this school,” Stephanie said.
Every step of the way students have been involved in the process, with some becoming environmental leaders and others helping their parents on weekends or after school to pull out weeds and the old garden beds.
“It’s very much been about working together because at the end of the day, it’s the children’s garden,” Melissa said.
While the GGs and Melissa have been the muscle power and masterminds behind the garden, the responsibility will be handed over to the students, where they will be able to learn and grow healthy produce.
“A garden brings people together, food brings everybody together and everybody’s happy when they’re in the garden,” Melissa said.
“Children are hands-on learners, they live life like this and everybody’s just happy. So bringing them outside, this is what they love.”
Gladesville principal Nicki Wood said this garden will become a part of so many conversations and activities at the school.
“We want our kids to experience the joy of growing and using food in cooking and hopefully then move into doing that at their homes,” she said.
“We want our kids through this opportunity to develop a better understanding and appreciation of real flavours.
“We’re looking forward to developing an awareness and an understanding of appreciating the food we have and not wasting food and to minimise our waste and our footprint in a sustainable way.”
The vision for the school after returning from the pandemic is to also become a community hub for the local area, which will begin with a fresh food swap in October.
“After the last few years it’s what’s really been missing in our lives. So it’s an amazing day for Gladesville. We could not be prouder of our students and our parents and the community as a whole.”
