Foodtopia Dreaming Episode 4 Growing learning opportunities
Talk turns to the farm gate and the food swaps that are taking place. She wants more but how to progress. What does it look like?
I talk about my visit to my Uncle Berti, his farm and my Mums little plot and her mini wicking beds on her back patio and what retirement villages could look like across Australia.
We talk about the permaculture design course I finished recently, and of the teachers that were on the course and of other teachers in the city who were introducing food production to their curriculum, about the Stephanie Alexander program in primary schools and of the pilot they are running for high schools. Then of the high schools around the country that have built a curriculum to teach permaculture.
When you talk about it like this, it's not hard to motivate people. Or to shock them into action. Sandy is hooked. She gets it. I can see it in her eyes. She can see the learning opportunities, engaged, happy students. A healthy school environment that the students and staff are proud of. A school community that draws people back to their first places of learning. Where kids are not alone and teachers feel supported.
I wonder Sandy says...
Could we remove this stand of aging black wattle and plant an orchard and olive grove? Could we run a perpetual food garden along the perimeter that anyone can access, using seasonal food trellises as the fence? Could we fund-raise for water storage tanks to secure our water supple or even a supplementary bore - not for the sports fields, but the school farm we could build?
Grow the school farm from a few wicking beds to an urban farm? Would we ask the rural kids, the farmer boys and girls to help? The whip crackers and the tractor Toms? "Sure" I say. The more it is theirs the better it will be. They know what to do. They have been watching their Nonnas and Nonno, Omma and Oppa, Pop and Emma. It's their life and they are smart. They get it.
"Where to get the money from?” Sandy asks
"It will come" I say "Tell me more"
Creating green productive safe spaces that students build, spend time in and can go to and reflect, recharge and relax. To see that they can build for the future, their future. To build life skills that they own. That nobody can take away. Skills that are not defined by a job or a government or a learning provider. To understand that extracting value from the land is not the purpose. Neither is it to do good. It's evolving the capacity of the land so it can regenerate. Creating the environment for microorganisms to grow in soils, carbon stored and water held when it rains.
"Yes, and?" I say, knowing she is on a roll. It's becoming her vision. It's so much easier when there’s two people involved.
Run the canteen to process the abundant food coming from the school gardens. Hospitality and life skills courses from the canteen kitchen. Develop a love of food and healthy eating choices while learning how to eat socially. Drawing our school community in once a month to eat with us, share our produce, buy our excess and connect with the place that is educating the leaders of tomorrow.
Parents could subscribe to a daily school lunch instead of packing a lunch each day. (I'm in!) Teachers could have breakfast, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea delivered to them as a fee for service offer. And those kids who can't pay get breakfast and lunch anyway. Guaranteed income for the canteen throughout the year and healthy nutritious food to fuel the learners and educators of tomorrow with the produce from today, here, on this school land.
Seeing the Canteen as an enterprise and vehicle for change. Introducing regular produce swaps, composing, recycling, reusing and re-purposing. Becoming a plastic free, resilient community. Growing food and learning life skills becomes part of the curriculum. Understanding environmental, society and financial success introduces students to a holistic understanding of systems and how changing their behavior has a snowball effect on their health and well-being.
Phew. Undaunted by the work ahead, she waves goodbye as my daughter greets me wheeling her bike, bike trailer and saxophone. Off we ride to a chorus of happy swooping crimson rosellas. They know what’s coming.
Comments
Post a Comment