Volunteering is good for the soul

Volunteering is food for the soul.

This lovely sentiment comes from Cathryn Flynn, Medibank Retail Centre Manager in Maroochydore, after getting her hands dirty in a recent working bee at a local Kitchen Garden Program School.

Lucky for us, many people across the country agree and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is blessed with an army of willing and able volunteers.

In celebration of National Volunteer Week (11 – 17 May 2015), we are taking a moment to stop and recognise the many hands that help to make light work of the delivery of pleasurable food education across the country.

Volunteers are an integral part of the pleasurable food education philosophy and the operation of the Foundation itself. They can be found pulling out weeds at their local Kitchen Garden Program School, stuffing envelopes in the Foundation’s Melbourne Office, or getting digging and building at working bees run by our Program Partner, Medibank.

One such volunteer is Diana Winter from New South Wales. Diana is an enthusiastic volunteer at Cobargo Primary School. Diana was also the first ever Kitchen Specialist at Altona Meadows Primary School in Victoria, so her skills are highly valued at Cobargo Primary School where she regularly helps out with kitchen classes.

Diana is part owner of local produce store Sweet Home Cobargo, and says that she volunteers to put the skills she has acquired to positive use. She says...

Having worked within the Kitchen Garden Program I came to realise the importance of giving our young people life skills involving food, both growing and cooking.  I found that SAKGF ticked all the boxes

The Foundation is also fortunate to have a regular team of volunteers who take on various administrative tasks around the office in Melbourne. One such volunteer is Melissa-Jane Faber, who is studying nutrition and believes passionately in the principle of pleasurable food education.

For Melissa, volunteering with the Foundation is an opportunity to gain skills and experience to further her career, and it’s also a lot of fun! She says..

It is really exciting coming in every week because everyone is so lovely and I’m helping a good cause.

But there is nothing like a good old fashioned working bee to get those bigger jobs done. Teams of staff from our Principal Partner, Medibank, have been getting busy across the country in aid of their local Kitchen Garden Program School.

Like the Maroochydoore Retail team mentioned above, the Medibank Watergardens Retail Team rallied to help University Park Primary School with a number of projects, including placing and arranging their outdoor classrooms, constructing a worm farm and building seedling boxes. Their efforts were amply rewarded, with the students cooking up a storm to keep them fuelled for the day.

Franca Comito, Watergardens Retail Store Manager, noted, "a great deal of satisfaction was achieved by those who participated, the sense of accomplishment was awesome."

Volunteering is a noble pursuit and one that doesn’t only benefit the Foundation team and Program schools. We’re pleased to report that the army of kitchen garden volunteers are a happy lot who gain a great deal of pleasure from rolling up their sleeves and helping children learn how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal deliciousfood.

So to all of the volunteers that support pleasurable food education across the country, we say a mighty THANK YOU!

Are you interested in volunteering at a Kitchen Garden Program School? Search for your local school and contact them directly to discuss how you can get involved.