Firstly I understand that this will be expensive and there will be literally thousands of hurdles to get there – but if we take a long term view I think we would have something really wonderful.
We can be world leaders and provide something that is essential for the social, physical and mental health of our children.
As the saying goes… things that are worth doing are seldom easy!
- All new build / school renovation projects should include a working kitchen & kitchen garden (or glass house / polytunnel). By kitchen I don’t mean simply a place to cook, I mean a place to cook and eat together – a kind of home kitchen / school canteen/ classroom hybrid.
- I would design a new course to qualify people to run these kitchens & kitchen gardens. I would envisage a (gender neutral) ‘bean an ti’ type person, someone with a love of food, horticulture and teaching. The course would be an amalgamation of teaching, culinary, horticulture and nutrition education. The course would cover a variety of aspects on food and nutrition. It would cover menu planning, meal preparation and cooking. It would cover creating a kitchen garden and cooking within the seasons. It would cover the psychology of eating. The nutrition element would be divided up into 8 modules, one for every class so each year children learn a little more about food and nutrition in an age appropriate way.
- These kitchens & gardens would be a place to come together, a place to eat together, to learn about food and to use food in learning.
- Each class could have age appropriate roles within the kitchen/ garden – an hour per week per class in each. Children who benefit / neurodiverse children could benefit from more time in the kitchen / garden.
- Junior infants – growing herbs, planting seeds & harvesting, nutrition module.
- Senior infants – growing herbs, planting seeds & harvesting, nutrition module.
- First class – learning kitchen skills, safe chopping, preparing some food, preparing breakfasts, planting seeds & harvesting, nutrition module.
- Second class – learning kitchen skills, safe chopping, preparing some food, preparing lunches, planting seeds & harvesting, nutrition module.
- Third class – learning kitchen skills, safe chopping, preparing some food, preparing breakfasts, planting seeds & harvesting, nutrition module.
- Fourth class – learning kitchen skills, safe chopping, preparing some food, meal planning, planting seeds & harvesting, nutrition module.
- Fifth class – planning the growing calendar, understanding when to plant and when to harvest, preparing the soil, planting seeds & harvesting.
- Sixth class – planning the growing calendar, understanding when to plant and when to harvest, preparing the soil, planting seeds & harvesting. Prepare a lunch for the teachers. Have roles within the kitchen and garden to help with the other classes. Have a harvest sale where parents or the community can buy some produce.
- This school kitchen could be used as part of the curriculum – reading recipes to reinforce reading, learning maths by counting/ preparing recipes – using food to learn fractions and percentages, cooking to learn about heat and temperatures. Food waste to learn about composting and so much more.
- The school garden will teach how to grow, mindfulness, nature, working with the soil will benefit the microbiome, by children interacting with the foods and gaining familiarity with new foods they are more likely to eat them in the future. Most importantly children will learn where food comes from.
- As part of this school kitchen we could explore ways to provide food for the school. Obviously there is a lot to think about and not realistic for children to be able to prepare food for the whole school. By making food part of school life and not something that is delivered already prepared in bags it can only help children value food more.
I have worked in hospitals for over 20 years. As long as the food budget is controlled by the finance department or the food provided is from a company whose accountant is advising them to cut their costs, we are never going to achieve the health and nutrition outcomes that we as parents want and that our children (and grandchildren) need and deserve.
I would love to hear your thoughts!
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