As the sun rises over a school in south-west Victoria, it shines on a rabbit-proof fence, two dozen garden beds and small shed where a disused soccer pitch used to be.
Farm My School began transforming unused school land at Bellarine Secondary College into regenerative market gardens about four years ago.
“The model of school gardens always falls over through summer or when that passionate teacher leaves,” co-founder James McLennan said.
“They’re growing food on a small scale and there’s no budget.”
But against a backdrop of increasing food insecurity, an ageing farmer population and more land being carved into housing developments, James and co-founder Ben Shaw figured there was a better way.
“Why not do it on a larger scale and actually profit from the farm to employ a farmer?,” James said.
“With something this size, we can actually feed the community with it.”
The Drysdale school’s program offers food boxes to parents and provides fresh produce to the canteen and food tech classes at a time when truly local food is hard to find.
“Our food is coming from all over the place and is funnelled through Coles and Woolies,” Ben said.
He said current food systems neither valued nor supported farmers wanting to run small-scale regenerative farms.
The pilot project, which runs with help from Bellarine Community Health Network, supports classes in agriculture, science and geography, and employs farmer Nina Breidahl four days a week.
“Some of the kids are really into it, some kids get wide-eyed about ... for example, just seeing different colours of tomatoes,” she said.
Nina will also take an apprentice under her wing this year and. even if it doesn’t turn everyone into an urban farmer, she says it will provide “good skills they can take into their backyard or just gain a better understanding of where food comes from”.
The farm hosts activity days, where students get their hands dirty planting seeds or building garden beds, and then enjoy a cooking class using the produce.
“We had basically over 100 people in this room with a big spread. We had baked spuds, a slaw, raw beetroot pickle and all these amazing elements,” James said.
Initial fears about the vegie-heavy menu were allayed when not even the carrot or beetroot tops were left behind by students — the key was frying them in oil.
The no-dig farm was built with help from the local community in a 24-hour working-bee-cum-festival in October — featuring bands, DJs and food trucks — as volunteers laid down cardboard, straw and compost donated by local businesses.
“We started on Saturday morning and worked through the Sunday morning,” James said.
“At 7pm we got the spotlights out and had the mounds of compost and could see steam coming off the people.”
More volunteers helped plant out the beds in November but at that point the founders still had no idea if the soil would even be productive.
“We’ve had a couple of days off over Christmas and New Year’s and then all of the sudden we come back and it’s going off,” James said.
School principal Wayne Johannsen, who had the idea of using the soccer pitch, said the program had transformed the canteen.
“To be honest, six months ago if I went to our canteen the healthiest thing I got was a low-fat meat pie,” he said.
“We’ll all rest a lot happier knowing that the food that our kids are lunching on is healthy.”
Not a green thumb himself, the principal said the project was having a real impact.
“I can’t understate the passion and the vision of James and Ben and what they brought,” Wayne said.
“We talk about numeracy and literacy and that’s absolutely a priority of our college ... but this has ignited my passion and our passion for also focusing really clearly on other important learnings, like sustainability.”
They have been bombarded by other schools wanting to try the program but want to get the pilot right first.
“It’s in its embryonic stages,” Wayne said
“It’s about holding up a model that can survive.”
In the longer term, they hope to expand the scheme to have school farms supporting each other with diversity of produce and in case of crop failures and floods.
“The whole model is that you scale up,” James said.
“So if it’s pumpkins grown off-site at another regenerative farm or it’s even looking at milk and bread and eggs that you bring in so it’s not just a vegie box, it’s actually a food box as well.
“There’s so much scope to grow and evolve.”
The project was officially launched with a festival on April 6, featuring local music, guest speakers, food trucks and Farm My School ambassador and ABC star Costa Georgiadis.