The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program commenced at the Crescent School in 2015.
The purpose of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is to introduce pleasurable food education to children during their learning years, in order to form positive food habits for life.
Pleasurable food education emphasizes the flavours as well as the health benefits of fresh, seasonal, delicious food grown in our garden, harvested and used in our school kitchen. Dishes cooked reflect the vegetables, herbs and fruits grown, season-by-season by the children in their organic gardens and also reflect the Australian Dietary Guidelines. The kitchen activities emphasise balance and moderation, and endorse the concept of preparing fruit-based desserts ‘sometimes-only’ and developing skills for integration into various environments in which the students work and live. The development of skills is aimed to promote independence and opportunities to taste, make and experience the sense of achievement.
Pleasurable food education is designed to be fully integrated into the curriculum or learning framework as it offers infinite possibilities to reinforce literacy, numeracy, science, cultural studies and all aspects of environmental sustainability. Pleasurable food education encourages critical thinking, teamwork, an understanding of cause and effect and increased levels of observation.