Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program
The school community raised money over a number of years and installed a kitchen with four workstations. After the installation of the kitchen in 2012, the school commenced the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. Ideally, students participate for two years during their time in Grades 3 – 6. The school invites parents and carers to attend the sessions to assist the students.
The garden sessions include garden maintenance, planting, harvesting and composting. Our garden area is continually changing and developing as we experiment with growing the different fruits and vegetables used in the kitchen sessions.
Kitchen sessions include the preparation of dishes from many parts of the world. The menus are varied and the students get to try things they might never have tasted before. Kitchen sessions emphasise ‘home style cooking’ and the students learn safe cooking techniques, food safety and hygiene, food presentation skills, preserving and table etiquette.
Every kitchen session ends with a ‘Shared Table’ - a sampling of all of the dishes that have been cooked that day. Volunteers join the students for the Shared Table and they encourage healthy eating, good table manners and discussion of the foods prepared
