The idea for the Garden2Kitchen Project came about through the development of the community garden as a wonderful community resource and identifying the need for young children to have supervised access to such a resource.  Many children don’t have the opportunity or exposure to the environment in this way.

This project also allows the children to prepare food and have fun with it. At a time when education about nutrition has been identified as a major issue for children, this has been enthusiastically received and facilitated by some wonderful professionals.  We only mentioned it once and they were all on board!  We had professionals from Hunter New Engalnd Area Health Service, one of our local preschools and one of our enthusiastic garden volunteers to take the children through the various aspects of the program.

Funds were received through Funding for Rural and Regional Renewal and also from Communities for Children which enabled us to do this.  We hope to obtain more funds so that we can extend the invitation to more pre schools in 2008.

Aim:
To excite and encourage young children to develop an interest in and respect for nature and how it provides sustenance as well as enjoyment

Outcomes:

• Practical skills in gardening and water saving within the garden through play
• A greater understanding of the cycle of food production
• Through participation, encouragement to increase the variety of foods within the diets of preschool children (particularly vegetables)
• To observe and participate in preparing food
• To gain social skills through working together in small groups, meeting new people and experiencing a new environment

Cookbook

Download Fruit and Vege Cookbook (PDF, 1MB)