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   Kitchen Garden program  


About the program
Volunteering
Sponsors

The Kitchen Garden at Collingwood is a very well-known feature of the school, and highly valued by students, teachers and parents.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation logo

Photos by Desley Insall

First established in 2001, each week 180 children in Grades 3 to 6 spend forty minutes in the large organic vegetable garden which they helped to design and build, and now maintain, on the school grounds.

 
Photos by Desley Insall

The children also spend one and a half hours each week in the College kitchen preparing and sharing a meals created from their produce. The program operates with two part-time staff, a gardener and a cook, and many dedicated and ethusiastic volunteers.

Photos by Desley Insall

In the kitchen and garden the children work in small groups with the support of volunteers and under the supervision of a specialist and a classroom teacher.

Many schools have established gardens in their grounds. At Collingwood the emphasis is on learning about food and about eating it.

The garden grows food that is then harvested, cooked, served and enjoyed by the children.

Photos by Desley Insall

To find out more about the Garden including garden tour dates, curriculum links and how to support the program visit the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation.

Volunteering

We welcome volunteers from the school and local community, and many people who do volunteer find it fun and interesting to work with the children.

Download Collingwood College Kitchen Garden Volunteers Information Kit (pdf)

To volunteer in the Kitchen contact Kitchen Manager Desley Insall or in the Garden contact Poppy Turbiak, Kitchen Gardener 0419397202.

We also wish to say a big thank you to all of our current and past volunteers, without whom the program would not be possible.

Photos by Desley Insall

'First and foremost, we want to enchant and engage the children. Children are unimpressed by lists or pyramids that separate the 'good for you' from the 'not good for you' foods'.

But get them digging and planting and picking, or get them mixing or rolling or chopping, or get them around a table with their own freshly baked pizza topped with their own tomato sauce, liberally scattered with herbs from the garden, and the result is enthusiasm, real learning and great flavours."

Stephanie Alexander

Photos by Desley Insall

 

Photos by Desley Insall

 

Kichen Garden in the early days Garden bed with straw mulch
Above: Early days in the Kitchen Garden.

The students at Collingwood College would like to thank the following people and organisations for their generous support:

A special thank-you to Bob King owner of Ryset Australia for the generous donation of tools after the recent arson attack on the Kitchen Garden shed.

Ryset Australia is an Australian owned company with more than 70 years experience in the manufacture and wholesale distribution of tools and equipment for the Australian horticultural industry.

They have one of the broadest ranges available including spades, hoes, forks, rakes, pruning shears, gardening gloves, hoses and attachments and rain gauges, to name just some of their products.

Visit www.ryset.com to view their extensive product range

Donations In Kind

  • CERES Nursery
  • CERES Propagation Team
  • Demars Timber
  • Diggers Seeds
  • Fitzroy Nursery
  • Fisher & Paykel
  • Floriana
  • Friends of the Earth Food Co-Operative
  • Furitech
  • Gravity Coffee
  • Melbourne Market Authority
  • Maggie Beer Products
  • Nolans Road Olive Oil
  • Organic Gertrude
  • Robinvale Estate Olive Products
  • Biviano & Son's Fruit Market, Fairfield
  • Organic Green Grocer - Dennis & Mary Staight
  • The Builders Arm Restaurant - Kurt Sampson
  • Koots Restaurant - Patrice & Catherine Reppelin
  • The French Brasserie - Fredauric Naud
  • Books for Cooks - Tim & Amanda White
  • The Northcote Social Club

Financial Gifts

  • ANZ Trustees - The Felton Bequest
  • City of Yarra
  • Department of Education (Strategic Partnerships Program)
  • Department of Human Services (Office of Housing)
  • Education Trust
  • Kids & Families Foundation - KAFF
  • Pratt Foundation
  • Telstra Foundation
  • The Education Foundation
  • The Rotary Club of Collingwood

Other financial sponsors and donors

  • Dobsons Potatoes Alexandria, Victoria
  • Will Studd Calender Cheese
  • Linton Bio-dynamic Orchards
  • Phillip Van Huynth and Family
  • Silvergroves Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Victoria
  • Sunbeam Electrical Equipment
  • Jill Friend
  • Dianne Park
  • Phillip van Huynth
  • Caroline ( our art teacher)
  • Larraine Milburn
  • Alice Nugent
Photos by Desley Insall

 

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