• Nairne Primary School students turned adversity into opportunity with the help of their local community and Costa Group. 

• A generous mushroom donation to the school helped raise $440 for their Kitchen Garden Program. 

When Nairne Primary School‘s kitchen garden was recently vandalised, students lost produce they had carefully grown and planned to sell at their Father’s Day market fundraiser. What could have been a major setback instead became a lesson in community support and resilience. 

With help from their local community and a generous donation of fresh mushrooms from Costa Group, students rallied together to prepare an impressive range of dishes for the market, raising funds to support and strengthen their Kitchen Garden Program. 

Nairne Primary School is one of 11 schools sponsored by Costa Group in 2025 through our values-aligned partnership. The school’s response to adversity is a wonderful example of how the Kitchen Garden Program helps students build practical skills, confidence and a strong sense of community. 

After Kitchen Garden Specialist Kali Vincent collected two trays of mushrooms from Costa Group’s Monarto farm, students put their knife skills into practice by slicing the mushrooms. They prepared mushroom chips, mushroom skewers and focaccia topped with mushrooms and caramelised onions. 

Students also created posters, packaged seeds, dried lemon slices, prepared spicy chickpeas, and baked lavender, lemon and chamomile shortbread. The market featured fresh produce from the school garden, including lettuce, potted chamomile plants and bunches of fresh herbs, as well as pumpkins and eggs donated by staff members. 

“It’s a team effort here at Nairne, and I am very grateful to everybody for their generosity and help,” says Kali. 

Staff arrived bright and early on Friday morning to set up the market before classes began. 

“Customers came thick and fast to snap up some treats for their dads for Father’s Day. We pretty much sold out in the half hour we were set up before school and made an impressive $440 to go towards improving our kitchen garden,” says Kali. 

That afternoon, students celebrated the success of the market by making mushroom ravioli. “At first, I heard a lot of ‘MUSHROOMS! Ewwww gross! I do not eat mushrooms!'” recalls Kali. 

But after rolling the pasta and preparing the filling themselves, the children were eager to give it a try. “We started hearing ‘I actually do like mushrooms!’ and ‘That was actually nice, can I have seconds?'” says Kali.  

This story is just one example of how our partnership with Costa Group is creating meaningful connections between their farms and local school communities, helping more children experience the benefits of hands-on food education.

Over the three years of the partnership, 30 schools and early childhood services across Australia will receive a two‑year Kitchen Garden Program membership and an infrastructure grant to support their kitchen garden activities.

Spotlight on Tasmania

In Tasmania, two schools that also received sponsored memberships and infrastructure grants through our partnership with Costa have been busy making the most of the Kitchen Garden Program.

At Our Lady of Lourdes School, students have planted silverbeet, spinach, onions, kale and cabbage to support both their school’s canteen and Gran’s Van, a community food van serving people experiencing food insecurity.

Meanwhile, East Devonport Primary School won the Recipe of the Imagination category at the National Kitchen Garden Awards 2025 with its Cheesy Beet Burger. 

Faced with an abundant harvest of silverbeet from their school garden, students prepared and froze multiple batches of silverbeet, breadcrumbs and cheese patties, until they had enough to serve 200 delicious burgers, feeding the entire school community. 

Looking ahead 

We’ll be catching up with our 2026 sponsored schools in the coming months to share more stories highlighting the positive impact of hands-on food education. 

Do you want to turn your Kitchen Garden Program into a fundraising powerhouse like Nairne Primary School? Don’t miss our Fantastic Fundraising webinar, open exclusively to Kitchen Garden Program members.  

The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation and Costa Group have partnered in a values-aligned multi-year agreement that ensures more children and young people from around Australia experience pleasurable food education.