Dongara District High School celebrates 10 years of student gardening program

Dongara District High School is celebrating a decade of successfully teaching students how to grow their own produce, cook with it and support their school and community in the process. In 2012, students began taking care of their own garden plots, starting with seedlings and ending with produce ready to be cooked. In those years, primary school students have been learning how to turn the produce into sellable items, sending them to the local seniors home or raising money with them for local community programs. Secondary students, meanwhile, have been able to cook with them as part of the school’s Patch to Plate program, completing a Certificate II in Hospitality in the process. The produce has also been used by the school’s canteen, providing students with healthy meals while saving money. The program’s co-ordinator, Yvonne Jenkins, said the program has helped encourage the kids to eat healthy. “The kids appreciate fruit and vegetables a bit more when they are the ones growing them,” she said. It has also helped students learn the value of hard work, secondary deputy principal Rhiannon Downes said. “They learn to respect each other, and work as a team, and achieve their best, because they know that if they don’t do what they need, they don’t get the harvest or follow the process with their cooking,” she said.