Local children learn eating veggies can be fun
Wed 17 June 2009
Stacey Roberts, Bachelor of Journalism
Sunshine Coast children are taught how to grow their own nutritious fruit and vegetables with “Permakids” workshops at Veggie Village, a Peregian Beach community garden.
In the era of the global financial crisis, people are cutting back on spending and looking for cheaper ways to feed their families without resorting to unhealthy, over-processed junk food.
At Peregian Beach, children are learning how easy it is to create and maintain vegetable gardens with Sunshine Coast mum and permaculture teacher Leonie Shanahan. Leonie runs “Permakids” workshops where children are taught to respect nature by caring for plants, harvesting, composting, making worm farms and seed saving.
These workshops give children a chance to work together on a sustainable source of healthy food in a friendly, fun environment. Leonie says she can see the benefits to the children, and thinks parents can too.
“It’s basically giving the kids an opportunity to experience vegetables fresh from the garden,” she says.
“I see them in there eating, it’s a game, trying new food.”
Permakids assistant Kay Schiefelbein also says it’s good for children to get out into nature.
“I think gardening’s very grounding, for children because we do so much head stuff, everything’s fast, screens and media everywhere,” she said.
“Getting hands-on in the garden is essential for part of their growth, I think.”
The workshops, for children between the ages of five and 12, are held at “Veggie Village”, a community garden in Peregian Beach where volunteers work together to maintain the communal veggie patches.
The aim of Veggie Village, the first in a series of villages to be established, is to “contribute to the development of a sustainable community through encouraging and promoting the growing of organic food and native plants”. The Permakids workshops help contribute to this sustainable community development.
A parent, Lisa Day, was at a recent workshop and said it was the first time they’d attended, but her son James was already asking to come again.
“They’re having a great time, now we’ll have to go home and make a worm farm and a scarecrow, they’re really enjoying it,” she said.
James and his sister Nicole took part in a treasure hunt, finding different leaves and flowers, were encouraged to smell herbs and learned about which plants were weeds that had to be pulled. They then harvested some veggies from the garden, with everyone receiving a share to take home.
Nicole and James washed, dried and painted individual pots, and chose their own herb or veggie to grow, filling the pot with potting mix and carefully planting the seedling.
The garden’s scarecrow was the hit of the day, with Nicole, James, and Leonie’s daughter Melika Burke pitching in to re-dress and decorate it in a bright orange jacket and sparkly jewellery.
In addition to the workshops, Leonie has also successfully created a number of gardens at local schools through the Edible School Gardens program, where she says it’s more than “just growing vegetables”. The programs, which usually run for 12 months, consist of weekly or fortnightly classes where the students learn about permaculture, garden design, and the benefits of fresh food.
Students’ families, parents and grandparents are all encouraged to get involved, helping to make the garden and keeping updated with its progress across the year.
Leonie believes a worm farm is an essential part of the garden, so children feed the worms, then use the castings and liquid in the planting process. The students also learn about natural pest control, growing and harvesting mulch, seed saving and food miles. They also make compost, and create “green waste teams” to collect food waste from within the school.
Workshops are available on various dates throughout the year at a cost of $5 per child.
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