ADVERTORIAL
Our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program at Sunrise Christian School, Naracoorte, is designed to provide a hands-on, real-world learning focus.
The program connects the garden and the kitchen, teaching students where food comes from and how to prepare it with care and confidence.
Its impact has been recognised beyond our school community, with students winning the McCormick Flavour Forecast Competition (SA & NT) twice in the past three years, and the program featured on ABC Radio during OzHarvest Week last year.
Grade 6 students are at the heart of the program, working in the garden one fortnight and in the kitchen the next, experiencing every step of the journey – planting, growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing fresh produce.
In the kitchen, students develop essential cooking skills, including safe knife use, accurate measuring, making pasta and dough from scratch, and preparing meals using seasonal ingredients.
Confidence, creativity and teamwork are intentionally fostered.
In the garden, learning focuses on sustainability and responsibility.
Students grow plants from seed, compost, maintain a worm farm, care for chickens, collect eggs, and grow flowers to attract beneficial insects.
The purpose-built kitchen garden features a gas pizza oven, BBQ, picnic tables, raised garden beds, tool shed, hot house and chicken shed, supporting authentic, hands-on learning.
In middle school, learning continues through Food Technology and the OzHarvest FEAST program in Grades 7 and 8, where students explore sustainability and reducing food waste.
Together, these experiences equip students with practical life skills and a deep understanding of food from paddock to plate.
Kate Gale
Middle School Coordinator
Teaching: Food Technology, Art, Textiles and Kitchen Garden
