The SCAS Veggie Patch is a beloved place for our Stage 1 students. Each long break students can come along and lend a hand to the garden. From weeding to watering, students are immersed in gardening best practice. We encourage students to take these skills home with them and perhaps even teach their parents and caregivers a thing or two!
Mrs Ann-Kathrin Kiehn, the Stage 1 Garden Guru, believes it is fundamental that we develop an awareness and appreciation for sustainability from a young age.
“We teach our veggie gardeners the importance of growing your own food and healthy habits about eating and growing,” says Mrs Kiehn.
As well as tending to the garden and discussing sustainable living, students in Stage 1 get a chance to taste what they have grown and are developing a palette for a variety of herbs.
The Veggie Patch is part of a wider group of sustainable initiatives being implemented at school. These include a solar energy generator, a bush tucker garden where we collect rainwater, a worm farm, keep cup sales (and discounts for bringing one!) at our IONA Café and paper recycling bins.
We are very proud of the enthusiasm of our veggie gardeners. While we continue to promote sustainable practices at school, we hope that students can start making environmentally proactive decisions themselves.
A waste-free lunchbox is a great place to start. The initiative promoted by Health Mid North Coast calls children and their caregivers to action by encouraging reducing, reusing, recycling and composting.
A waste-free lunch has no throw-away packaging, can be eaten, reused or composted. By doing so, as a school community, we can move towards a reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill. Currently, the average Australian household throws away almost 16kg of garbage each week and a waste-free lunchbox can be a step towards reducing this statistic.
Check out the Mid North Coast Health Waste-Free Lunches program here.