Forget hot dogs and party pies … soon lunch orders at Werribee’s Wyndham Park Primary School will be packed with vegies that children and parents have grown themselves.
Thanks to a $5000 grant from Wyndham council’s Healthy Together Wyndham program, school families and staff are working together to encourage healthy eating choices at home and school.
Wyndham council’s youth portfolio holder, Cr Marie Brittan, says the Kookaburra Kitchen Garden project will support children and their parents to make changes for better lifelong health.
“Getting the children involved in growing the vegetables used to prepare school lunch orders is a great idea,” she said. “When children take part in growing and preparing healthy meals, they are more likely to eat them. With more than half the adults in Wyndham overweight or obese, it’s a change we need to encourage.”
With support from local social enterprise Shoestring Gardening, the Kookaburra Kitchen Garden will grow vegetables for the school’s canteen to use for its lunch orders.
Wyndham Park Primary teacher Jacek Tomaszewski says the school is embracing the project.
“We have 12 garden beds at the moment, but we want to increase that to 15 vegie patches as well as planting some fruit trees.”
“We’re getting parents involved through healthy-meal-preparation workshops, offering opportunities to volunteer by expanding the lunchtime garden club, having workshops with Edible Gardens and Werribee Heritage Orchard, and a harvest festival at the end of term,” Mr Tomaszewski said.
“We also want to connect with the large local Karen community, who have a rich heritage of plant knowledge they can share with the wider school community. The backbone of the program will be gardening lessons with Shoestring Gardening, starting with the preps to grade twos.”
Growing vegies and healthy eating will also be included in the school curriculum, with a different year level responsible for looking after the garden each term. “We want to inspire Wyndham Park Primary families to start growing their own vegies and herbs at home, so the health benefits flow into the wider community,” Mr Tomaszewski said.
“Kookaburra Kitchen Garden is more than just growing vegies at school. We hope it will prompt healthy, sustainable changes in our local community.”
Healthy Together Wyndham is found here.
Lunchbox checklist
D0s
• Use wholemeal bread
• Pack water
• Pack fruit
• Use vegies – in sandwiches or as sticks
• Wholegrain crackers and reduced fat cheese
• Get kids involved in making lunch
• Let kids choose from a few healthy options
DON’Ts
• No white bread
• No soft drink or cordial
• No juice – not even 100%
• No lollies
• No packaged foods
• No chips
Recipe
Part of Wyndham council’s Healthy Together Wyndham program is aimed at getting families working together to encourage healthy eating choices at home and school.
Healthy lunches don’t have to be boring or bland, and it doesn’t take much effort to create something your kids will look forward to digging
in to.
Check out the Live Lighter website for some great lunch box recipes.
In the meantime, here’s one to get you started.
Avocado, egg and spinach sandwich
Preparation time: Five minutes Serves 1
Ingredients
2 slices wholemeal or multigrain bread
½ cup spinach leaves
1 egg, hard boiled and de-shelled
2 tablespoons avocado
1 tablespoon low-fat natural Greek yoghurt
¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ tablespoon lemon juice
Method
Put spinach leaves over one slice of bread. In a small bowl, mash egg and avocado together. Add yoghurt, mustard and lemon juice and mix well. Spread over the remaining bread slice and sandwich to the spinach.
More recipes at:
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