Message from Stephanie Alexander
My life as a food lover is a direct result of growing up in a family where what we ate, how it was prepared, how it had been grown, and who we shared it with all mattered a great deal. As children we helped Grandpa and Mum in the garden and duck yard, watched and helped as bread was made, potatoes were dug, or we licked the pudding basin. We loved to invite others to share the family table, to tell us stories, to argue and debate.
I believe that children need to be educated about food, where it comes from, how it is grown, and how delicious unexpected combinations or new foods can be. They also need to experience the social importance of the table. Children learn best through doing, through positive examples, through trial and error. We need to capture their interest, curiosity, and energy as well as their appetite.
Health professionals and educators in the developed world are increasingly concerned about the growth of childhood obesity and the need to find a way to influence the food habits of our children, both now and for future generations. There are many different approaches being trialled. Many of the solutions proposed tend to be couched in negative and cautionary language. Pamphlets, guidelines, ticks and pyramids are acknowledged to have made little impact. We know what is best to eat for optimum health, why then do the children not want to eat it?
There needs to be another way.
The national partnership between the Australian Government and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation proposes a new way forward. The SAKGF aims to support pleasurable food education for as many Australian children in primary schools as possible.
In a selected SAKG primary school the children in grades 3-6 grow food in a productive garden. They harvest the food and cook the food in a purpose-built teaching kitchen then sit together to taste and enjoy what they have made. The Kitchen Garden program is part of the weekly curriculum for 4 years of a child’s primary school years. All Kitchen Garden teaching stresses enjoyment, pride in achieving, respect for the earth and the value of co-operative endeavour. It offers a path towards a sustainable future.
Since 2001 the SAKGF has supported a growing number of Kitchen Gardens in Victorian primary schools thanks to a combination of corporate, philanthropic and State Government support. There are currently 49 separate programs in operation.
It is now proposed to expand this Program to selected schools in all states and territories in up to 190 Government primary schools from 2008.
All of us at the SAKGF are excited by the possibilities of this expansion. We will be working as hard as we can to make this program a resounding success so that it can be expanded to bring pleasurable food education to many more children.
For more information about the selection procedures and the SAKGF go to www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au