Getting wriggle on with gardens

Bradford School pupils (from left) Courtney Wilson (7), Cameron Young (10) and Jeannie Corona (6) check on worms they will add to vegetable gardens later this year. Photo by Jane Dawber.
Bradford School pupils (from left) Courtney Wilson (7), Cameron Young (10) and Jeannie Corona (6) check on worms they will add to vegetable gardens later this year. Photo by Jane Dawber.
The worms are multiplying, the compost is ready, and now Bradford School in Dunedin can afford to make gardens in which to grow vegetables for soup this winter.

Bradford School principal Lisa Dillon-Roberts said the school last week received a $1180 Otago District Health Board nutrition fund grant, which would go towards the cost of building two large vegetable gardens.

Pupils were interested in gardening initiatives, which were aimed at getting them to think about how to improve their diet in a sustainable way, Mrs Dillon-Roberts said.

The school implemented healthy eating initiatives in 2006, and last year, following a learning module entitled ‘‘How my lunch box is destroying the world'', sold vegetable soup during winter.

The soup was popular and the school council, comprising seven year 5 and 6 pupils, suggested gardens be built.

Pupils had helped staff develop several worm farms and tend to composting units. Jeannie Corona said she had learned all about composting and worms, and joked the best place to find tiger worms would ‘‘probably be the jungle''.

This year, Otago schools will have access to a $170,000 fund. More than $68,000 was awarded to 28 Otago schools and early childhood centres during the inaugural round last September, with grants ranging from $150 to $7000.

Healthy Eating co-ordinator Kathy Hamilton said the panel reviewing school applications would be looking for ‘‘applications which had plenty of student and parent involvement, [and] which are sustainable''.

Applications close on April 4, with a second round in September. The fund is administered by the ODHB, in conjunction with Public Health South, the Heart Foundation, and the University of Otago College of Education.

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