Shared Table Awards 2025

This year, our Shared Table community has been buzzing with creativity and collaboration. From clever gardening hacks to inspiring cooking sessions, educators across Australia have shared thousands of ideas that bring the Kitchen Garden Program to life in their schools and services. 

The Shared Table Awards celebrate these contributions by shining a spotlight on the posts that stood out for their ingenuity, impact, and ability to spark joy in learning. With our members posting almost 1300 posts this year so far, choosing favourites is tricky! But here are the posts that stood out for us throughout the year.

Staff Choice – Early Childhood 

Winner: Happy Trails ELC, NT 

All the rooms at Happy Trails ELC got involved making sweet potato gnocchi, using sweet potato and basil from their garden. The children learned so much from this cooking experience; mashing potatoes with a fork, making the dough, bringing it together with their hands, rolling and shaping the gnocchi, and then cooking it with tomato and basil sauce. We love how all the children participated in the full cycle of planting, harvesting, preparing, and sharing. 

Runner-up: Oak on Jellicoe Childcare, Toowoomba, QLD, which used silverbeet and spinach donated by families in a delicious chicken curry. 

Staff Choice – Primary School 

Winner: Taradale Primary School, VIC 

Students explored the insects and creatures in their worm farm and compost system. They identified and recorded what they found and illustrated them for a healthy compost poster. Discoveries included worms, tiny white baby worms, worm cocoons, slaters, millipedes, springtails, small centipedes, fungus, a slug, and spiders. Nothing better than seeing children engaged in hands-on learning! 

Runner-up: Yanderra Public School, NSW, which connected with another Kitchen Garden Program school, Berrima Primary School, to show their students what a program can become with ongoing care. 

Staff Choice – Secondary School 

Winner: Bayview College, VIC 

Bayview College joined the Kitchen Garden Program at the beginning of 2025, and we were thrilled to see them share their first harvests with the community. Their garden is thriving thanks to the great care of the students. 

Runner-up: Trinity Bay State High School, QLD, which experimented by leaving their garden to its own devices during Cairns’ hot and humid school holidays. They returned to a bounty of pumpkin, cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes, and lots of herbs. 

Community Choice Awards 

We’ve crunched the numbers to determine our most popular resources, recipes and guides. Plus, we’ve identified the most active schools and services in 2025.  

Most active user: St Augustine's Primary School, VIC 

The 'most active user' winner is calculated based on the number of likes, comments and posts made by the school or service. St Augustine's Primary School posted 65 posts, 635 comments and 2097 likes.  

Highest number of posts: St Joseph's Catholic Primary School (Werribee), VIC, with 273 posts (Featured in the header photo)

Most popular resources: 45-minute recipes collection, What’s new in professional development and Grants list 

Most popular resource for Early Childhood: Top 6 quick no-cook recipes for early childhood 

Most popular collections: 45-minute recipes collection and Posters collection  

Most popular recipes: Carrot muffins with garlic butter, Seasonal savoury muffins and Basic pizza dough 

Most popular recipe collections: Bread collection and First Nations ingredients collection 

Most popular garden activities: Weed hunter cards, Tool license test and Window on the world 

Most popular garden activity collections: Wild weather garden activity collection and Self-directed activities 

Most popular lesson plans: Pasta skills, Knife skills video demonstration and Friend or foe? - unit 

Most popular guides: Planting and harvesting guides and Five-week themed kitchen rosters 

Congratulations to all the schools and services featured in the Shared Table Awards and a massive thank you to everyone who engaged with our online resource library and community hub in 2025. We can’t wait to see what you get up to next year! 

If you're not a Kitchen Garden Program member yet and are interested in being part of the Shared Table community, take a look at our membership options or contact our Support Team on 1300 072 543 or membership@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au.