Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

We have now been in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program for over a year.  To celebrate all we have achieved we submitted applications for their 2025 Kitchen Garden Awards.  Below is our application for the category "Beyond the School Gate."  There is a 200 word limit, we could have written so much more to explain the joy, the learning and the partnerships that have developed but we hope the below application catches the judges eyes.  We will share our other applications in the coming weeks.  The winners will be announced in the last week of term.

Our Program has gone beyond the school gate.  We have built a partnership with Myuna Farm, which is a working community and children's farm in Melbourne's south east.  We contacted them to see if we could bring the students down to weed gardens and plant vegetables for the community.  We wanted our students to learn about giving back to our wider community as part of our Social Justice value.  We met with Sammy, their Education Development Officer and explained our Kitchen Garden Academy program.  I mentioned we hadn’t been able to start composting as we are working out space and logistics.  Sammy showed us their educational section for composting and said we could use their space. We have now integrated two visits per term into the program. Students carry our compost bucket from the kitchen and empty it in the working compost bin in Myuna’s education area.  The students take seedlings grown in class and plant them in garden beds outside the barn.  We focus on plants that will feed the guinea pigs, rabbits and other small animals.  Students have embraced composting and learning about the life cycle of plants and animals.  Myuna staff are grateful for the flourishing garden!