It was a great morning at Chevallum State School.  It started with a garden workshop conducted by Robyn Cook, the Chevallum P & C President, on permaculture and organic gardening, with good look at composting as well.  We toured the children's kitchen garden which looks wonderful as you can see in my pictures here.. 

The more formal part of the meeting was a welcome by the school principal Lyn Winch and the address by Robyn, see here below, giving an overview of the project.  Two children spoke about what   the garden means to them.

This is the address Robyn Cook gave at the Community Meeting for the Chevallum State School's Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Project

'Over twelve years ago a group of parents worked to establish the first gardens here at Chevallum. The gardens flourished for a few years but as is the nature of life they entered a fallow period before the energy rekindled and the gardens flourished again.

This renewal continued the vision to entwine the children with the gardens, to deepen their understanding of the nature of life and to encourage them to discover the delights of food through the wonder of gardening. As many of you know this is a great idea but one not easily incorporated into the hectic curriculum schedule of a modern school. And whilst Lyn and our teaching staff have been supportive of our efforts, by their own admission most of them didn't really understand what the garden could offer. Yes gardening is nice but what can it give to a student who has unprecedented access to a cable-connected world.

Persistence is in the nature of a gardener and we persisted. Through workshops, courses, meetings, expos and working bees in every weather extreme the Sunshine Coast could summon we pulled nut grass, harvested produce, planted seedlings, relocated trees, celebrated births, mourned deaths and rearranged beds to accommodate the fickle flow of children running through the gardens. With the help of others in our community we persisted and dreamt of what could be achieved and how our children would benefit.

Of course we are not the only school to embrace food-producing gardens and we kept in touch with the work of other schools through our permaculture and community garden networks. About six years ago we saw that Stephanie Alexander also understood the benefits of school gardens and took that extra step, that step we all wanted to take and she established a kitchen as well. How thrilling to have someone as well-known and influential as Stephanie to take up the cause and hit the headlines.

We watched with great interest, engaged in long discussions about how the government and the public will readily engage with celebrity to effect change, had photos and stories from Leonie’s visit to Collingwood College and began to think of how we too could establish a teaching kitchen and encourage our school to embrace this opportunity for our children.

The opportunity came with the announcement by the Federal Government that they would offer the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden grant to all public primary schools. Lyn and I discussed this and in October 2008 I travelled to Melbourne to attend a Stephanie Alexander conference and was completely caught up in the possibility that this could actually happen for us. My nature is to be an optimistic fatalist. I always think the best will happen but am rarely disappointed when it doesn’t so I came away from the conference prepared to write the grant application, knowing I would leave it till the last minute and never for a moment thinking the application would be successful.

However we were successful. This raised another whole issue of course due to the slight inconvenience of not having a building to put the kitchen in. A dilemma by any standard and one resolved by the dark horse of the world-wide recession. The Federal Government’s BER was announced and the building that would house our kitchen would start and be finished before June 30. A quick glance at any calendar and you’ll know June 30 passed some time ago but that’s a story best told over dinner and nice glass of wine.

So here we are at our first community meeting. This really is the start of our project and what I need to impress on you is this. To successfully raise this next generation of children we need to focus on what they are eating. We know that to change health outcomes in our children and the wider community we need to re-establish our relationship with how food is grown, cooked and eaten.

Of course it is not only about food for physical health but also emotional health. We know that vitamins and minerals are needed to grow strong and healthy bodies but many overlook the fact that these nutrients are also vital to grow strong and healthy minds. I don’t need to point out the rise in physical and mental ailments affecting our children but do I need to point out the very real and well-documented connection this has to falling nutrient levels in the foods we eat today.

With the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden grant, Chevallum School has the opportunity to lead the way on the Sunshine Coast in making the changes we want to see in our children.

So how does it work?

The children in years 5 to 7 will spend one lesson per week in the garden and two lessons per week in the kitchen. The children will be taught by specialist teachers in both the garden and kitchen but their own teacher will also be involved in the lessons. The food they grow in the garden will be used for meals in the kitchen and at the end of their cooking session the children sit down to share the meal and clean up.

Our kitchen will have five work stations where each group of children will work with an adult helper. Each station will have a stove and bench and will share ovens and sinks. We will have dishwashers and fridges, a washing machine and clothes line. Everyday things to teach children about living in the everyday world so they learn how to look after themselves, their family and their surroundings.

So what do we need to take these next steps?

Our building will be finished by the end of 2009, and while we have some money to fit it out we will also have to rely on the generosity of our community. We need people with trades to come in – plumbers, electricians, cabinet makers, painters. We need appliances like stoves, dishwashers, fridges, ovens, blenders and mixers. We need flyscreens and floor coverings. We need financial support to employ our specialist teachers and we need to fill the pantry. We need tables, chairs, cutlery, crockery, glasses, sharp knives and yes of course the children will be taught to use these knives themselves.

More than anything else though, it is you we need, to come and spend time in the kitchen and gardens to work with the children. Your help is something that can’t be purchased with any grant. Know that you will be part of a teaching team and that children at this age have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a wonder of the world that is often blunted all too soon. Satisfaction that you are doing good work is guaranteed and we support our volunteers every step of the way.

In a few weeks I hope to be ready for the garden expansion so I’m looking for teams to put the whole thing together. Resource gathering is fun and I’ve had many successes. I am thrilled to say we have been offered the soil needed to expand our gardens thanks to Aaron Ashlin and Earth Born. Nutri-Tech Solutions has offered a soil test and the nutrients needed to make that soil fertile and ready for planting and Ross is making the tanks and edging to encase it all.

Green Harvest has helped us with garden tools for the children. The Natural Foodstore has supported us to make this day a success by providing refreshments and Donnas’ unfailing encouragement. Susie and Tamara at Florabunda have donated native plants for the children to pot up and take home. I have been working with George of Artemis Wrought Iron to make a fitting entry to our gardens for which a RADF grant application will be submitted. And at work last Friday Robbie Rayner of Protector Alsafe promised boxes of gloves and dust masks for use in the garden after he overheard me speaking about this project to another customer. 

So how can you help? There is a register of our needs, it’s not complete and you may have something to offer that isn’t listed and I welcome you to put your name and contact details on it. I will follow this up with each person in the next week or so. Your contribution doesn’t have to be this week or even this year. Our commitment to the education of our children is ongoing so your involvement could be next year, the year after that or for as long as it works for you in your life. If each of you could tell others about what we are doing here I believe we will gather all the resources we need.

This is not the end though. Our new facility is an asset, one that can be hired out, used for functions, cooking classes and workshops.  Regular gardening and soil nutrition courses will be offered to teach others how to grow nutrient-dense foods and how to cook up wonderfully nutritious foods for families without losing sight that food should also nourish the soul, excite the palate and spark scintillating dinner conversations. We have a vision of the future and when you join us again for the opening of our facilities in early 2010 you will see what that vision is.

I will now invite some of our children to tell you what the garden means to them, morning tea will be from 10 to 10:45 and then we can head off for a tour of the garden.
 
Thank you for coming and for your support.'  Robyn Cook.