The Thriving Communities Program at Wugularr School in Beswick is really showcasing the word ‘Thriving’!
After experiencing a major setback in the form of a fire that ripped through the main garden, knocking out lines of irrigation and destroying a whole crop, the garden is back better than ever! This is due to some hard rebuilding work by both EON Project Managers and our Community Assistant John Blitner. It’s been amazing to see the bountiful harvests now giving the school nutrition program and families in Beswick a valuable source of fresh vegetables.
This year at Wugularr School EON has been running nutrition, cooking and gardening lessons with the FaFT, preschool, early years, primary, and high school classes.
The students have experienced a range of gardening lessons, including learning the art of composting. Students from junior, middle and upper primary have established their very own raised garden beds where they get to choose what to plant and are responsible for watering, weeding,and harvesting their beds.
In nutrition classes we have focused on finding alternatives to processed foods and we’ve learned to prepare meals like fried rice, tuna salad and corn fritters. These have all been popular, however the ‘smoothie bike’ and the healthy fruit smoothies created with pedal power are the clear favourite for kids at Wugularr School!
The upper primary class have harvested bucket loads of leafy greens, broccoli, cucumbers and beetroot. Then they did the rounds of houses in the community, distributing the produce giving community members a boost of fresh, healthy veggies to supplement their diets.
Meanwhile, the high school class have been tackling the EON Thriving Communities modules with gusto! We have been running the horticulture and hospitality modules with these students and they are learning important skills in the garden and the kitchen, from transplanting seedlings, fertilising plants, and checking soil pH levels to kitchen hygiene and safety, making their own recipes and feeding a hungry crowd.
We have significantly upgraded the orchard area at the school this year. Community Assistant, John Blitner and Project Facilitator Anthony Heaslip put in some hard days laying irrigation, digging holes and helping with a community planting day during the mid-year holidays where we planted 25 fruit trees. John has proven himself to be a fantastic asset to the EON team, erecting fencing, tirelessly weeding the garden and harvesting produce which he gives to people as they walk past the edible garden on their way to and from the store.
