The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation has launched the inaugural National Kitchen
Garden Awards to recognise the creativity of kitchen gardens in schools and early
childhood services across Australia.
From before-school breakfast clubs, student-led compost initiatives or experimenting in your school
kitchen with healthy, garden grown veg, the National Kitchen Garden Awards is about celebrating the inventive, community-driven ways educators and young Australians are using their kitchen garden to learn about health, well-being and sustainability.
“Schools and early childhood settings around the country have developed creative and practical ways for
students and children to learn and connect through fresh food and inspire healthy life skills,” says Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation CEO, Dr Cathy Wilkinson.
“Our national awards will spotlight the projects that are giving fresh food a chance to be incorporated into learning and the lives of all young Australians.”
Legendary cook and food education advocate Stephanie Alexander will be joined by produce expert
Thanh ‘Fruit Nerd’ Truong, plus cookbook author and broadcaster Alice Zaslavsky to review the finalists
in each of the nine award categories.
“Alice is such a strong advocate for fresh food and fruit and veggies – so positive and such a great supporter of the foundation,” Wilkinson told EducationDaily.
“And the ‘fruit nerd’? It’s wonderful to have him on board.”
“I’m thrilled to have been asked to help judge the National Kitchen Garden Awards! The foundation does such important work in schools teaching children about fresh produce, its journey, benefits and uses. I’m sure it will be hard to judge from so many passionate schools and organisations, but I’m excited to join Stephanie and Alice to champion the brilliant work of school communities.” Thanh ‘Fruit Nerd’ Truong says
Simply enter 200 words to answer the category theme in one or all of the award categories and submit your application. Images are optional.
20 years of growing and cooking
Wilkinson told EducationDaily she “can’t believe that there hasn’t been an award” before reaching the Foundation’s significant 20th anniversary milestone this year.
But she wants to be clear that, with so many categories available for unique recognition, this isn’t a competition about “having the ‘biggest and best’ garden”.
“This is very inclusive – and open to everyone with all kinds of gardens,” she told EducationDaily.
The inaugural awards are so inclusive for all primary schools, secondary schools and early childhood services across Australia, in fact, Wilkinson says you don’t even have to part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program to enter.
“It could be about having a wonderful garden filled with First Nations food, or a garden that fits our own ethos about feeling inspired to ‘start small but dream big’,” Wilkinson told EducationDaily.
“We will go visit schools when they have a special anniversary – Stephanie and I have been to all sorts of places – but in terms of a national call-out to kitchen garden programs right around Australia, our hope is that schools take steps to create their own kitchen garden for every member of that school community to enjoy.”
Winners announced in September
Winners will be announced at a special Kitchen Garden Month celebration hosted by Stephanie
Alexander at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday 11 September, with more than $5000 in value gifted to each of the nine category winners.
- $1000 in cash to advance kitchen and garden infrastructure.
- A kitchen garden product pack valued at over $3500.
- A two-year membership to the globally recognised Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program
(or a two-year extension of membership for schools and services already teaching the program).
Award categories
- Sustainable Solutions presented by Costa – Share some of the ways sustainable practices have been championed in the kitchen or garden.
- Recipes of the Imagination presented by General Mills – Share an original recipe creation and have it developed by an educator and their class.
- Well-being Champions presented by Kellogg’s – Explain how the kitchen and garden is great for young people’s mental health, fitness and well-being.
- Beyond the School Gate – Share great examples of how your school’s kitchen or garden has had ripple effects into the community.
- Showcasing STEM – Demonstrate how green space or kitchen activities have been used to explore science, technology, engineering, and maths
- Everyone’s Welcome – Explain how your kitchen or garden helps you celebrate togetherness, understanding, all cultures and abilities.
- The Art of Kitchen Gardening – Showcase how your garden and fresh ingredients have inspired storytelling and artistic pursuits.
- First Nations Foods – This category aims to explore how schools incorporate First Nations Food into their learning.
- Level up your Veg – Explain how kitchen and garden lessons encourage students to try new vegetables, often for the first time.
Inspiring young people to connect with fresh, delicious food
At the heart of the Kitchen Garden Program is pleasurable food education, which inspires children and young people to understand and connect with fresh, seasonal, delicious food through fun, hands-on learning in the kitchen and garden. This approach empowers students to develop practical skills, an appreciation of seasonal produce and a positive, confident and healthy relationship with food – for life.
- 100,000+ children participate in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program per year
- 1000+ Kitchen Garden Program members (schools and early childhood services) across the nation
- 158 new members in FY 2022/2023
- 575 educators attended professional development events in FY 2022/2023
- 1000+ recipes, lesson plans and curriculum-linked lesson plans are housed in the foundation’s digital resource library and community hub, the Shared Table
o 23,359 downloads of curriculum-linked lesson plans and resources in FY 2022/2023
“We work right across the grow, harvest, prepare and share continuum,” Wilkinson told EducationDaily.
“The awards, and all their different categories, look across all of that and celebrate different things you can grow together – and how, even though you might start small, you can dream big.”
