Eat ... play ... learn

FOR one night, Michael Park School in Ellerslie is not a school but a restaurant. Principal Dee Whitby is not going to work, but out to a nice dinner with her husband.

Twenty-nine Year 3 students plotted and planned an entire restaurant service for 60 people with the help of a parent, Kirsten Bridge.

In their especially-designed "29 Chefs" aprons,  8- and  9-year-old boys and girls chopped  vegetables, cooked dishes, set  tables and served important visitors, including their parents, teachers and even local MP Sam Lotu-Iiga.

"We were quite nervous," says Celia Bridge. "What I learned is that I should go slowly. If you trip you might spill the food."

The idea came from Celia's mum, Kirsten, who is a partnership manager at the Garden to Table Trust.

"They do farming as part of their curriculum and money is a part of their maths curriculum," she says. "They are learning about money. I came in as a parent to the teacher who is a wonderful open teacher. I sat in a circle with the kids and said to them: 'What do you think about linking the money with the farming and opening a restaurant?'," she says.

Working for the trust, it is  easy for Mrs Bridge to pitch for fresh food on the table. "I am so passionate about fresh and nutritious food that, even though this school is not linked with the trust, I wanted to do something like this with the children." 

Mrs Bridge says the service was a huge success, not just because the children did well on the evening, but because it inspired passion for cooking among the children.

"The kids are loving it. Although Celia often is in the kitchen or helping me when I am cooking dinner, Celia has shown even greater interest in making meals or parts of meals since cooking with all her friends in her class. This warms my heart."

Mrs Bridge says when  menu brainstorming began, the children  suggested fish and chips. "I had to steer them away from that. I asked them what they had in their garden and what kind of produce are in the winter gardens of people's homes."

They settled on  kale chips, porchetta with salsa and baby potatoes in parsley butter with salad, a vegetarian dish of red lentil dahl served with poppadoms and apple rhubarb pie with icecream for dessert. All the fresh produce was sourced either from  the school's vegetable garden or from their homes.

With the success of the restaurant service, the school is considering making it an annual event. Apart from learning  to cook, the children also learned  to budget.

Mrs Bridge says the pupils will get a surprise when they learn just how much money they have earned from the  project.

"I just wanted to support my daughter and her friends. We have to face the fact that not all parents are able to teach their kids about healthy food," says Mrs Bridge.

"They have to learn these things at school."rowena.orejana@theaucklander.co.nz

 

Garden to Table

Six Auckland Schools are participating in the Garden to Table programme where children are engaged in hands-on experiences of growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing food from the earliest possible age.

Mrs Bridge says if more funding were available the programme could be rolled out to more schools.

The schools implementing the programme are East Tamaki Primary, Meadowbank Primary, Peninsula Primary, Owairaka School, Dawson's Road School, Edendale School.