Kids are full of beans – so why won’t they eat them?
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Since the dawn of time, getting children to eat their fruit and, more so, their vegetables has been a challenge, often met with scrunched noses and stubborn refusals, while parents are left scratching their heads.
But Dookie Primary School may have just found the secret recipe for success.
The school has been a member of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program for years, and two years ago, they began to utilise it fully.
Principal Luke Kleinig, teacher Holly O’Dea and nutritionist Katie Thorp revitalised the program’s potential by designing an initiative called ‘Nourishing Dookie’.
And from little things — soil, seedlings, and a splash of community spirit — big things grew.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“At the very beginning, we established a working group of volunteers from the community, who came and joined really early on,” former program coordinator Katie said.
“They have continued on and come every Monday morning, volunteering either in the garden or here in the kitchen.”
Each week, students rotate between the realms of cooking and gardening, discovering how food moves from soil to plate and transforming lessons into hands-on experiences.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“Everyone will start the session saying ‘I don’t like that’, or ‘I don’t want to eat that’, of course, which kids do,” Katie said.
“But they make it, they’re part of it, and by the end of it, we all sit down, share the meal, and everybody enjoys it.”
Parents have noticed this difference, too.
The school has received an influx of positive feedback, with students now requesting that their lunchboxes include cucumbers and other once-unfamiliar vegetables.
In true Dookie Primary School spirit, the benefits of the program ripple outward beyond the school gates.
Excess produce from the garden is shared with the community, while the kitchen turns out biscuits and other homemade treats for locals.
“It’s really embedded itself into the community, and it’s become a really important part of the curriculum, too,” Katie said.
Yes, the days when Dookie Primary students refused to eat their vegetables have ‘bean’ and gone.
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