Emerald Rotary’s Youth chair Tina McInerney was approached by Emerald Secondary College at the end of Covid lockdown in 2021.
The school wanted to offer extra subjects to students who would not be continuing with their higher education.
VECAL teacher, Marion, thought it might be a good idea to teach the students how to grow food and how to cook it as this could also be a pathway to securing future employment.
There was already a very dilapidated and overgrown kitchen garden in a corner of the school grounds, with an old chook pen, and some fruit trees but unusable in its current state.
Rotary was able to step in and help. Along with the students at the school, and few teachers who had a passion for this program, the club set about developing a way to achieve their goal.
The students researched kitchen gardens and sustainability and designed what they thought would work.
Rotary then approached The Casey Cardinia Foundation to obtain a grant of $5000, which became the project’s “seed” money, with work on the project beginning in February 2022.
As it continued it was obvious that for the ongoing longevity of the garden that a watering system would be required and Tina was able to pledge funds from Emerald Rotary to secure an additional matching grant from District 9810 Rotary.
The following year saw a new group of students involved and the Emerald Men’s Shed, offered their assistance.
This would be project for the year for the men’s shed; helping the students by building planting boxes, shelving for the hot house, retaining walls and most importantly of all set up the watering system, so that the plants would survive the holidays.
The rotary club is nearly there, with the water tank having arrived at the school and the men’s shed set to order the pumps and all that is needed for the watering system.
The planter boxes have been installed, and hopefully by the time term four starts the students will be able to propagate the seeds, and start the planting for the kitchen garden.
There are a few things still left to be done, and paid for – tools and plants and pots and soil – but the rotary club is getting to the point where it can see this project finalised.
This project – designed to help the students understand sustainability – was also organised to involve the community of Emerald, with the rotary club looking to use local businesses including Mitre 10 and the men’s shed.
