EON Foundation healthy eating program sees Rangeway Primary students thrive with gardening and cooking

Rangeway Primary School students are developing healthy eating habits at school, growing and harvesting their own fruit and vegetables through an Indigenous education program. The EON Foundation Thriving Communities Program was introduced late last year, with students designing and constructing garden beds and a bush tucker patch. Eight months later, Year 7 students are showing off their zucchini and cauliflower, grown from seed. Ryder Hadley, 10, said he liked to use his favourite vegetable, carrots, when he cooked at home. “Sometimes we make carrot cakes and my mum’s favourite lasagne,” he said. “Eating healthy helps you get strong and gets you nutrition.” Jasmine Ryan, 10, said: “I make the food called French veggies. It’s a pasta-ry mix with all these veggies like capsicum, beetroot and heaps of other veggies.” EON was established in 2005 in response to a study revealing the poor health conditions faced by Aboriginal children in remote communities. The community-based program has engaged with 39 communities across WA and the Northern Territory, educating youths on the links to nutrition and health. EON project manager Sally Dighton said the gardening program was a practical way to teach children healthy habits and bring fresh produce to remote communities. “We have got so much engagement, the kids are excited, they spend their lunch times and their recesses down here in our garden,” she said. “It’s those little connections that you can show kids, like how to crush garlic ... the stuff that you’ll take with you through life.” Rangeway Primary School principal Karin van Dongen said the school was thrilled to partner with EON, whose program had provided students with hands-on learning opportunities. “The students are so engaged in the program and love spending time in the garden and the kitchen,” she said. “It warms my heart to see how protective the students are about the produce in the garden. The pride on their faces is priceless on the days they go home with a meal they cooked themselves with our own harvest.”