Since 2004, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation has transformed how children learn about food, health, and sustainability. What started with a single garden at Collingwood College has grown into a nationally recognised program, reaching over 1000 schools and early childhood services across Australia.
We spoke to Hayley McKee, Communications & Engagement Manager, about the Foundation’s journey, its impact on children and communities, and how the broader community can help ensure its vital work continues.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Foundation. How would you describe the journey from Stephanie’s original vision to where the organisation is now?
The Kitchen Garden Foundation has supported millions of children and communities with our life-changing Kitchen Garden Program. It all began in Victoria in 2004, when Stephanie Alexander AO - the much loved Australian chef and cookbook author - dug up the footy field at Collingwood College and planted it with vegetables and fruit trees for students and their families to access and enjoy. The national impact of Stephanie's original vision has been enormous.
Today, over 1000 schools and early childhood services across Australia are running our curriculum linked Kitchen Garden Program. The program is a fun, hands-on approach to education that promotes healthy lifestyles by engaging children in the magic of watching a seed sprout, developing their appreciation of local and global cuisine and nurturing practical life skills about the food system. Our program also delivers significant wellbeing benefits to children and young people, aligns with both internationally and nationally recognised social and environmental initiatives, and has positive outcomes in effective engagement of reluctant classroom learners and children with challenging social behaviours.
Today, the majority of our schools are in communities experiencing socio-educational barriers and over 50% of our work supports children in remote or regional locations across Australia. Our big dream is for all Australian children and young people to have access to and participate in our globally recognised Kitchen Garden Program.
Is there a story that stands out for you about the impact the program has had on an individual child or group of children over the years?
It's so impossible to pick just one story! Each year we offer two grant rounds of sponsored Kitchen Garden Program memberships to support communities around Australia to embed positive food, sustainability, health and wellbeing education in their schools and services. Our grant rounds show us the enormous unmet demand for our program. Over 1400 schools and early childhood services applied to our 2024 grant rounds. That’s roughly 274,000 children who are standing by to receive our food education!
Working with grant recipients to start them on their kitchen garden joy is such a joy. We get to see their vision for the children and families in their community and provide them with the infrastructure grants, membership benefits and human support to make their dreams bloom. Take a look at some of our wonderful grant recipients here.
How can the broader community get involved in what you do?
There are many ways the community can help ensure our vital work continues for another 20 years. This might be through a donation, Gift in Will or reaching out to our Partnerships Lead to talk about impactful ways to expand and enrich our program so more children and communities in need can benefit from life-changing food education.
We also work directly with local government and businesses, on community place-based projects to initiate community-led solutions to boost local access to fresh, seasonal, healthy food through on-the-ground food education experiences. Right now, we have community place-based projects active in three states: Western Sydney (NSW), Logan (QLD) and in the Western District of Victoria (VIC).
Arnold Bloch Leibler has been on the journey with you from the start. How would you describe the partnership?
In 2004, Arnold Bloch Leibler helped us establish the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation and assisted us to achieve our crucial charitable deductible gift recipient (DGR) status, paving the way for the Foundation to be recognised as a leader in promoting the prevention of disease through pleasurable food education. Since then, Arnold Bloch Leibler have continued to provide legal advice to the Foundation on a pro bono basis. We are so grateful for their timely, friendly and approachable team who have provided us significant support over the past 20 years.
