School “vege patch” wins national multicultural award

21.11.06

A unique and joyful project started in a suburban school in Melbourne has won the coveted Community Award at the annual National Multicultural Marketing Awards announced tonight at a dinner in Sydney hosted by NSW Premier, Morris Iemma.

The awards are conducted by the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW as a means of highlighting innovation in the private and public sectors in dealing with cultural diversity.

Congratulating the coordinators of the Multicultural School Gardens project ,the Gould Group, the Chair of the Commission, Stepan Kerkyasharian , said: “This is a charming project from Victoria where older immigrants join with children to grow vegetables in the school grounds and then later harvest the produce together and turn it into exotic dishes.

“The most telling proof of the success of this concept is that more parents attended the harvest day of the pilot project at North Sunshine Primary School than had ever attended any event in the school’s history”, he said.

The Gould Group is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to environmental education and training in sustainability which includes environmental education and sustainability programs and projects for schools, businesses and the community.

In their submission for the awards the Gould Group gave this outline of the project: The Multicultural School Gardens project combines community volunteering, multicultural understanding, gardening and cooking into a unique and enriching whole-school environmental education project.

Ethnic volunteers, particularly older community members, share with students their experience, stories of their culture, and the traditional food plants that they grow and eat. Students work with their gardening buddies to create multicultural food gardens, growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs from across the world. Together they cook traditional dishes using the produce from their multicultural gardens and share stories and info rmation about different cultures. In turn the students mentor their buddies in English language development and communications technologies helping them to connect with others.

Plans are underway to involve eventually over 15 thousand students in the project across Victoria .

“What I like about this idea is that it crosses generations, cultures, languages and life experiences. I understand it has also built parent involvement brining into the school grounds some mothers who were afraid to even enter the school grounds previously.

“It also has the power to attract older people with lesser language skills out into the community and to build their confidence to communicate in English, Mr Kerkyasharian said.

According to the Gould Group: There is a strong emphasis on mutual benefit which all participants recognise. By encouraging physical activity, healthy eating, gardening and cooking kills, the project also contributes very positively to tackling childhood obesity and the loss of basic food preparation skills and students take pride in their garden - during school holidays children and parents who live near the school come to tend the gardens.