Dannevirke's Totara College teacher Ranier Arnold with her students working in their garden on the school grounds.
Dannevirke's Totara College teacher Ranier Arnold with her students working in their garden on the school grounds.
A Tararua school initiative to create a lasting legacy and teach financial literacy through their Garden to Plate programme has been awarded a Woolworths Growing for Good grant.
The initiative at Dannevirke’s Totara College combines growing food with learning financial literacy and business smarts for students from year 1through to 13.
Catherine Langabeer, head of sustainability for Woolworths New Zealand, said with a total of $50,000 to be awarded, the focus was on projects that inspired the next generation and connected them with the journey of food from farm to fork.
“We think we can have a real impact with these grants, connecting young Kiwi kids to how food is grown.
“We were blown away with the depth of thought that went into these winning applications, and especially the connection to community that we saw in so many of them.”
Ranier Arnold, who teaches food technology, home economics, rural studies, science, social studies and life skills at the college, said the project allowed students to lay down foundations and build on the learning for generations.
She said the Woolworths grant of $8750 would go towards buying the materials to build a hot and shade house, which would enable students to grow native plants and seedlings.
Ranier Arnold said the gardens and hot and shade houses would provide a lasting learning legacy for students.
The idea was to add to the four raised gardens and fruit tree orchard established at the school in 2024.
“We grow food down there that we can cook in the kitchen here.”
Arnold said the school also wanted students to be able to learn financial literacy through building and growing the food.
“They get all those building skills, plus they get credits, and then they are building into the legacy that we are leaving behind outside.”
She said they would run a side business and sell the plants while learning about the costs involved with marketing, advertising, and deciding how to reinvest the money back into the gardens.
“It’s an area for the whole school and different parts of the school will have different inputs depending on their year levels.
“The idea is that it is collectively owned so everybody takes pride in it and everybody has a part to play in it, and making it grow and prosper.”
She said each of the students who contributed to the build would write their names on the inside beams, shade and hot houses to further their connection with the school.
“They can come with their children and say ‘I built that’.”
Arnold said she loved to see the students connect the dots with the inside and outside classroom learning and hoped there would be enough money left over from the project to buy a timed watering system.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
