School Gardens

Welcome to 2022!

Harvest for Health Grant applications open

 

The Central Coast Health Promotion Service, in partnership with Rumbalara Environmental Education Centre is offering five $1000 grants for primary schools in Central Coast Local Health District. This is to support the creation of supportive school environments for healthy eating, physical activity and environmental sustainability via school produce gardens and/or kitchens. Contact [email protected] to enquire.

School Gardens

Having a garden can help your school to promote environmental and sustainable learning as well as encourage healthy eating and physical activity. It is a fun way to learn outside and provides students with a hands-on opportunity to prepare, eat and share the food they have grown.

Participation in a school garden program has been shown to help improve knowledge and confidence in relation to growing, preparing, cooking and eating a diverse range of fresh foods among Australian children.¹

Can my school have a kitchen garden?

Any school can have some sort of garden or kitchen, regardless of their site, size, resources, gardening experience or classroom space.
How to start a kitchen garden

Kitchen gardening for sustainability

Patch to Plate is a free recipe book developed by the Central Coast Health Promotion Service that includes healthy and simple recipes that local teachers have made with their students using fresh ingredients from their own school gardens. Check out and download below to try these tasty recipes at school or at home.

You can also watch and share how to prepare four of our delicious recipes from the Patch to Plate book in the videos below!

Watch the videos below and download the recipes and methods.

Tell us what you think of these videos here!

Central Coast School Garden Interest Group

The Central Coast School Garden Interest Group (CCSGIG) aims to share ideas and connect Central Coast schools with an interest in school gardens and cooking. Healthy eating, encouraging physical activity and providing an interest for students rather than using small screen technology underpins the group’s philosophy.

The group meets twice each year, with a different school hosting the meeting and sharing its experiences. This year, we are considering new ways to connect as a group – if you have any suggestions, get in touch!

Join the School Garden Interest Group for information on workshops, events and new resources.

You can also join our Facebook group.

 

If you have a question contact Nina Kingon at 4320 9715 or [email protected] or for updates from the Central Coast School Garden Interest Group join the mailing list here.

References

¹Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au