Over the past two days we have been lucky enough to host 36 students and teachers from Brigidine College in Randwick here in Canowindra. The students are studying Hospitality and Food Technology (Year 11/12). The Hospitality study compliments units of work such as ‘source and use of information in the hospitality industry’; how to participate in safe work practices’ which covers WHS; ‘hygienic practices for food safety’ plus more. The Hospitality students need to undertake 70 hours of practical and work placement.
As part of their stay in Canowindra they have cooked and served all of the students certain meals, for example, dinner one night, and breakfast and they had prepared snacks in advance for the 3 day trip. The Food Technology students study Food availability and selection, The Australian Food Industry, food quality and manufacture. This part of the trip provides them with authentic hands on real life learning experiences.
Some of these experiences have included some things that students in the country take for granted, like holding baby chickens, shearing a sheep, and seeing large scale vegetable farms. The highlights of their trip have included: from the Hospitality students, Isabella: getting to hold the full grown chickens; Chloe: seeing the vegetable farm and how big it is, with vegetables including baby spinach, asparagus, chickpeas, corn and sunflowers; Nicole: seeing the sheep being shorn; and from Emily who is studying Food Technology: holding a baby lamb and then seeing how quickly they grow. Most importantly it was the protocols that were in place to
ensure that the correct quality control was there for the end user.
During their time in Canowindra they have visited: Woodstock Cemetery, ‘Westville’ farm, Billimari Olives, Rivers Road Organic
Farm, Mulyan Pty Ltd, Carabine chicken farm, ‘Oatleigh’ farm, local Canowindra businesses and Central Tablelands Livestock Exchange. Tuesday night was spent having dinner at Tom’s Waterhole and Winery.