18 Nov 2020
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is extremely excited to announce the launch of its new Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years. This ground-breaking food education initiative is the first of its kind – a curriculum-integrated program designed for secondary school students in Australia. Based on a growing demand from the kitchen garden community and evidence showing the need for this kind of approach in adolescent years, expanding the Kitchen Garden Program into secondary years was a must. Which is why in 2018 the Foundation partnered with AstraZeneca Australia under their global Young Health Programme initiative to design this pioneering program.
There were 1115 secondary students aged 12–18 that participated in the pilot during 2020 and 822 during 2018-19, with more than 110 educators involved. We would like to congratulate and say a big thank you to the following pilot schools across Victoria and New South Wales: Clonard College; Cobden Technical School; Drouin Secondary College (and Blackwood Centre for Adolescent Development as an annexe); Elwood College; Heywood and District Secondary College; Liverpool Girls High School; Mordialloc College; Narre Warren South P–12 College; Numurkah Secondary College; Orange High School; St Bernard's College; Werribee Secondary College; Western Heights College. These pilot schools have been pivotal in implementing and trialing the Kitchen Garden Program for Secondary Years.
“Our pilot schools, advisory committee, and staff have worked really hard to co-design a program that will work for secondary schools of all types. This flexible model is adaptable to all school environments and can address and enhance a broad range of goals and challenges. We’re looking forward to seeing older kids digging into their gardens, learning to love beautiful fresh food, having a lot of fun, and doing a lot of learning along the way. ”
- Josephene Duffy, CEO