St Martins Lutheran College recently received one of 1107 Woolworths Junior Landcare Grants to aid its Year 3 gardening program.

The aim of the project ‘Food for Thought’ is for the students to grow and cook with their own produce, immersing in a ‘paddock to plate’ experience.

They will be involved in cultivating garden beds, planting and propagating seeds, pest and weed control, fertilising, harvesting, cooking, and consuming their own produce.

Year 3 teacher Nicole Halloran said the expected environmental and educational outcomes of the project include students learning about plant life cycles, understanding where their food comes from and actively engaging in real-life hands-on learning.

Alongside their worm farm and compost bin, the students are shown how valuable food waste is when it is not placed in landfill rather reused as valuable fertiliser.

“We hope to engage the students with real life learning experiences, we want them to experience the joy and the wonder of watching their hard work grow, watching their food thrive under their love, their care and their management.

“We’re really encouraging students to taste new foods while learning a life-long skill,” Ms Halloran said.

Year 3 student Lukas Reiter said his favourite part about gardening was cooking, getting all of the food out of the garden, getting dirty and getting out of the classroom.

Year 3 student Isaac Waters said his favourite part about working in the garden was cooking the food and eating it, planting seeds and picking the vegetables to cook with.

Winning the Junior Landcare Grant allows the current Year 3 students to help transform the existing gardening space into a usable, accessible, and thriving learning environment for future students.

The students have a vision of creating raised garden beds to aid access, fences to keep the chickens and students out, a watering system to ensure their vegetables can grow throughout holiday breaks and a fruit orchard so all the school can enjoy healthy fruit snacks.