skip to main content
Back to search results

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation

The Kitchen Garden Program is a holistic program supporting healthy physical, emotional, educational and social development.

  • Online
  • NSW
  • Vic
  • WA

Pricing: Paid

Origin: Developed in Australia for Australian schooling contexts

Affiliations: AITSL aligned, PD accredited; Approved elsewhere: Be You, NSW, SA, ARACY

Product type: Program; Posters; Fact sheets; Online resources (e.g. videos, games, tools, readings); Activity sheets; Student activities; Professional learning; Whole school approach or initiative; Learning modules; Class lesson plans

Contact details

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation
ABN: 74 107 809 030

https://www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au/

info@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au

Focus areas

  • Positive relationships

  • Belonging and inclusion

  • Mental health literacy and life skills

  • Self-regulation and engagement

  • Resilience and optimism

Curriculum alignment

  • Health and PE

  • Mathematics

  • Science

  • Humanities and Social Science

Prospective users

Audience: Whole school universal (Tier 1), Whole class universal (Tier 1), Targeted small group early intervention (Tier 2)

Communities: Diverse cultures or language groups, First Nations, Neurodiversity or disability, Rainbow and LGBTQIA+

Context: School or centre-based, Outside School Hours Care (OSHC)

Main beneficiaries: Early learning, Foundation/Prep, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7, Year 8, Year 9, Year 10, Year 11, Year 12

Delivery style: Classroom teacher is trained

Aims & approach

The program improves school engagement and social connection for children, young people, their families, and their communities, enabling them to form positive food, health, sustainability and wellbeing habits for life. This purpose also includes contributing to children's healthy development and wellbeing by helping them acquire practical garden and kitchen skills, and experience social learning around a shared table.

Schools implement the Kitchen Garden Program by integrating hands-on food education into their curriculum, teaching students to grow, harvest, prepare, and share fresh food.

Schools can join via a membership package, which includes educational resources, access to an online resource library, professional development, and ongoing support. The program aligns with the Australian Curriculum and promotes sustainability, health, and wellbeing via three packages, for: Early Childhood Services, Primary Schools and Secondary schools

The program uses a blend of online and in-person professional development designed to equip educators with practical skills for implementing the Kitchen Garden Program in schools and centers. Hands-on training events are scheduled in various locations across Australia.

Implementation support

  • Access to professional facilitator, instructor or mentor
  • Implementation training webinars or modules
  • Ongoing helpdesk, email or phone support
  • Regular webinars or access to community of professional practice

Evidence

The holistic approach of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program delivers significant wellbeing benefits to children and young people. Evaluations of the Program demonstrate impact in all six domains of The Nest, Australia's wellbeing framework for children and young people. The program's approach to health promotion through pleasurable food education is grounded in positive psychology and the power of values based messaging.

The impact of the program is supported by positive outcomes found in evaluations conducted by university researchers. References include:

  • University of Melbourne, 2019, What's Cooking? Evaluation of the long?term impacts of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.
  • University of Wollongong, 2013, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program Evaluation: Final Report.
  • McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing, University of Melbourne and Deakin University, 2009, Evaluation of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.