Auckland schools throw open garden gates

Cooking and garden enthusiasts around Auckland can get a taste of scheme that teaches primary schoolchildren to grow, harvest, prepare and share their own food.

The Garden to Table Trust is holding its first school garden and kitchen classroom tour on Wednesday, April 17.  It will host guests at several Auckland schools that have adopted the programme.

Garden to Table is a not-for-profit organisation that teaches primary schoolchildren to plant, pick, prepare and share food, as part of their lessons. The trust, established in 2008, supports 14 schools across the country and has 60 more wishing to join.

On the tour visitors will get the opportunity to see children working in their school vegetable gardens and kitchens, gain an understanding of how the programme works and sample food prepared by the children.

Trust chairperson Catherine Bell says: "The activity in the garden and kitchen classrooms really is something you have to see to understand. It is an incredible programme and we hope this tour will encourage our visitors to replicate this 'seed to plate eating' lifestyle in their own homes and schools."

The tour will show the project in action at Owairaka School, Edendale School, Meadowbank Primary School and either East Tamaki Primary School or Dawson School.

"There is a huge demand for the programme as people have come to realise how essential this real life learning is when it comes to educating children and the communities they come from," Ms Bell says.

"We hope the funds raised from the tour will help us extend the Garden to Table concept to even more children nationwide," she says.

Tickets cost $95 (less if booking in groups of five or more), including a gourmet picnic lunch and travel on a luxury coach -  email n.curinbirch@gardentotable.org.nz