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Spotlight on Cairns West State School

Cairns West State School have brought a touch of the tropics to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program!

Cairns West joined the Kitchen Garden Program with a head start - they already had an established community kitchen garden maintained by students who volunteered their time during morning break three times a week. The garden hosts a variety of produce including banana trees, lemongrass, basil, tomatoes, eggplant and taro.

The kitchen garden suffered badly when Cyclone Yasi hit Queensland earlier this year. The school has done a great job of cleaning up and re-establishing the plants. They filled two skips with debris following the cyclone. Rain continued to fall in the weeks following Yasi, which made preparation for autumn planting difficult. The students worked on enriching the soil with compost to replace the valuable nutrients lost thanks to the tropical rain.

Cairns West received funding from the Australian Government in 2010 to implement the Kitchen Garden Program. The funding meant the school could develop a kitchen classroom attached to the school tuckshop. The students worked hard in the kitchen leading up to the launch to produce some delicious dishes for the guests to enjoy. Year 4 and some Year 3 students will be taking part in the Kitchen Garden Program this year.  These students will attend kitchen and garden classes once a week.

Queensland Senator Jan Mclucas officially launched the Program as part of the school's annual multicultural festival. The launch included a tour of the garden and kitchen, a welcome from Principal Mike Hansen and the official launch speech by Jan Mclucas, followed by delicious refreshments proudly prepared by the students. Congratulations to the school and in particular their Kitchen Garden Program Coordinator and Community Liaison Officer Annie Wolff for hosting a wonderful launch.

Senator Jan Mclucas said, ‘Congratulations to the children, volunteers and parents for their hard work for bringing this wonderful kitchen garden to life and to the staff who have really embraced and encouraged this project.'

We welcome Cairns West to the kitchen garden community and look forward to seeing their Kitchen Garden Program grow and flourish!