Over the past few weeks a lot has been happening at Canowindra Public School as community volunteers, students, parents and staff members have been working hard on some incredible outdoor projects.
Following along the philosophies of the Stephanie Alex Kitchen Garden Scheme, a non-profit foundation taking a revolutionary approach to educating children and their communities about food, a chook pen, veggie garden and complimentary canteen are starting to take shape.
The self-sustaining cycle all starts in the classroom; every class has a bucket where all their food scraps go and each day a student or class monitor from each classroom takes the bucket down to the chook pen.
“With the chute in the new pen, the children can dump scraps down the chute, rinse out the bucket and take it back to the classroom,” said Canowindra Public Principal Sharon Hawker.
The food grown in the garden beds will go into the canteen to use in wholesome recipes. “The recipes will be suitable for the children to make in the canteen, so they are involved in the working processes and the cooking, right through to the end result of sitting together and eating the food,” Sharon said.
The new chook pen and garden beds are being purpose built to make them wheelchair accessible. A working bee will be carried out throughout the holidays on the chook pen and garden beds, and the canteen should be finished by the end of term break.
By Rosi Broom