Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation

The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is growing a food revolution from the ground up! Our key vision is pleasurable food education – skills for learning, skills for life.

We are changing the way children approach and think about food. All around the country, children are enthusiastically getting their hands dirty and learning how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal food.

The fundamental philosophy that underpins the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program is that by setting good examples and engaging children’s curiosity, as well as their energy and their taste buds, we can provide positive and memorable food experiences that will form the basis of positive lifelong eating habits.

The revolution rumbled into action in 2001, when renowned cook and food writer Stephanie Alexander OAM joined forces with an inner-Melbourne school community to establish the Kitchen Garden Program at Collingwood College. Stephanie’s pioneering approach to food education is now flourishing in many schools, through the support of  Australian national and state government funding.

Kitchen Garden Schools commit to a dynamic and innovative model that sees kitchen and garden classes run weekly, enabling skills-based learning that extends across the entire school curriculum.

As participants in the Kitchen Garden Program, eight to twelve year-old children spend time in a productive veggie garden and home-style kitchen each and every week. There they learn skills that will last them a lifetime, and discover just how much fun it is to grow and cook their own seasonal vegetables and fruits.

The diversity of Australian locations of Kitchen Garden Schools – from Coober Pedy in the outback, to Alawa in the tropics, to beachside Bondi – means that each school community has its own challenges and successes. But all are united in their passion to bring the benefits of food education to their students.