“I love being in the garden to see things grow. Also, to know that community can access fresh fruit and veg. The cooking lessons help me to experiment. I get great pleasure, when the students are enjoying the lesson and the food. And building relationships with families is so rewarding.”
- EON Project Manager, Minyerri (NT)
At Minyerri School EON has established a large edible garden- consisting of a number of flourishing garden beds – and leading to an orchard space with flowering fruit trees. The community are encouraged to harvest from the garden at any time. The preschool and FaFT have separate, smaller gardens that are also thriving with herbs, leafy greens and plentiful flowers.
EON’s fortnightly classes are delivered to students ranging from small children and carers attending the FaFT right up to Year 12.
Edible Garden lessons have focused on preparing garden beds, planting, harvesting, mulching, pruning and the students have enjoyed participating in discussions around what is needed to grow vegetables. They are gaining a real appreciation of the health benefits of fresh versus ‘store-bought’ processed food.
As harvesting became more regular from Term 2 this year, it’s been a fantastic opportunity for participants to be in the garden learning about the planting and harvesting, then cooking with the garden produce in nutrition lessons.
Cooking classes this year involved learning about healthy eating, vitamins and nutrients and how they help our bodies, hygiene in the kitchen, storing of foods and the safe use of cooking equipment. Healthy pizzas have been a firm favourite with the students pleasantly surprised at how delicious a veggie pizza tasted! Stir fries have become another much-loved meal as the children can see so many of the key ingredients come directly from their garden.
We started delivering the Healthy Eating Modules to high school students in Term 4 last year although unfortunately consistent delivery was challenging due to Covid-19 interruptions. However at least 30 different attendees have attended training sessions since then.
Community Assistant Lacinta Farrell has transitioned from being a volunteer to being a valued employee and is an enthusiastic and reliable support to the Project Manager.
This year the EON team worked with Alawa Aboriginal Corporation and the CDP in completing the planting of fruit trees and garden beds at the age care facility. We are looking forward to seeing this space used as respite for elderly community members.
