Garden to Table – Educating children about how to grow, harvest, prepare fresh food

Gareth MorganHealth

Garden to Table is a programme run in primary and intermediate schools that aims to educate children about how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, healthy, seasonal produce….

The Garden to Table programme was brought to Cannons Creek School 18 months ago by the Healthy Future Families (HFF) Trust who saw the Garden to Table as a practical programme that had potential to provide children with knowledge and skills about growing and cooking fresh and healthy food .

Over the last year and a half volunteers from the Healthy Future Families Trust have worked to establish a programme guide at the school, fundraising for equipment and supplies, running weekly cooking and gardening lessons and coordinating the group of community volunteers who are essential to the success of the programme.

What they didn’t anticipate was all the positive spin-offs the programme has had for family and community life at Cannons Creek School. Parents are coming along to take part in the Garden to Table lessons and a number of children are also growing and cooking their own produce at home. Not only that but some of the parents report their kids are teaching the rest of the family what they are learning too. The positive experience is evident in the video and is summed up beautifully in these words from one of the teachers at the school:

“Garden to Table … is such a wonderful asset to our school. Our children are so enthusiastic about what they are learning. They are asking more questions, they are becoming more inquisitive and more importantly they are learning to respect their own environment and each other…
It literally takes the classroom outside the four walls they are so used to and opens their eyes to other ways of teaching and learning. There are so many advantages to this programme.

It has taught our children the importance of caring for things such as tiny seedlings that eventually grow into vegetables that they can harvest, cook and eat. They have excelled in learning to cook meals that they would not otherwise have at home and have surprised themselves at how wonderfully tasty and healthy the food can be…

One of the most worthwhile things our school has invested in”

 

 

Garden to Table – Educating children about how to grow, harvest, prepare fresh food was last modified: December 15th, 2015 by Gareth Morgan
About the Author

Gareth Morgan

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Gareth Morgan is a New Zealand economist and commentator on public policy who in previous lives has been in business as an economic consultant, funds manager, and professional company director. He is also a motorcycle adventurer and philanthropist. Gareth and his wife Joanne have a charitable foundation, the Morgan Foundation, which has three main stands of philanthropic endeavour – public interest research, conservation and social investment.