Located in Victoria's South Gippsland Shire, St Joseph’s Primary School Korumburra has embraced a student-led approach for their breakfast club. They expanded their kitchen garden to support students to plant and harvest veggies such as pumpkin and zucchini. Students then created veggie-filled breakfast items like pumpkin and zucchini slice to enjoy in the morning before school.
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Learning and Teaching Leader, Mrs Carole Livesey said students welcomed the new additions to the breakfast club.
“Many students expressed surprise when eating the home-made slice. They told me they'd never tried a veggie slice but liked it,” she said.
Georgina Maxwell from the South Coast Prevention Team provided on-the-ground health promotion support for St Joseph’s Primary to progress through the Vic Kids Eat Well bites (actions) to refresh their breakfast club.
Boosting the availability of vibrant, nutritious and fresh options allowed the school to create a supportive breakfast club. This has helped kickstart student’s learning and foster social connection.
Mrs Livesey said many students take part in the garden activities too.
“The quiet vegetable corner gives students an alternative to the bustling sporting activities at break times. Some students like to keep an eye on the growth of the vegetables and are more willing to taste menu items when they’ve been involved in growing and preparing food,” she said.
St Joseph’s Primary School is also supported by a local non-for-profit enterprise, Grow Lightly. This enterprise donates a box of locally grown apples weekly, providing students with even more delicious and fresh fruit options to start their day.
“Students love taking turns at spiralising the apples in the morning. One student just loves the stewed apple and wants it every day,” Mrs Livesey said.
“Georgina alerted us to opportunities and put us in touch with Grow Lightly who were very generous with their donation,” Mrs Livesey said.
Georgina said involving students in the changes and providing them with a leadership role through planting, harvesting and cooking new fresh and flavourful options increases their interest in trying new fruits and vegetables.
“This approach supports students to build positive relationships with food by fostering meaningful connections and enjoyable experiences with a variety of garden-fresh produce,” she said.
Mrs Livesey said: “The students have been talking about the foods we grow and offer. They like to help with food preparation and cooking and will often ask me to put the recipe in the newsletter so they can proudly show their families.”
St Joseph’s Primary School Korumburra is keeping the momentum going by working with their external provider to create changes to their lunch order menu. The changes will see nutritious and tasty items top the menu and will support the school to expand its positive impact through Vic Kids Eat Well.