Reflecting on our inaugural Bake Sale with Westgold
When you hear the words ‘bake sale’, what comes to mind? A decadent chocolate cake … elevated with the Earthy tones of homegrown beetroot? Crunchy cookies … studded with fresh pops of apple? Gooey bliss balls … featuring a surprising pop of sweetness from harvested kumara?
Recently, with the support of Westgold Butter, we invited schools throughout Aotearoa to host their own Bake Sale, in an effort to raise funds for their Garden to Table programme. But, in a Garden to Table twist on this classic fundraiser, we challenged them to honour fresh produce, straight from the garden, in their baking.
The participating schools blew us away with their creativity, and managed to completely redefine the meaning of a bake sale. It’s fair to say our first-ever Bake Sale has been one to remember … join us as we reflect on what school’s got up to.
Students at Tomarata School with their baked kai, including mini quiche, vegetable slice, and banana fudge.
A total of 50 schools participated in the Bake Sale - and some even managed to raise in excess of $1000! This will help fill their pantries with essential staples and other much-needed items for their Garden to Table programmes.
But, the Bake Sale was so much more than a simple fundraiser … it was also designed to enrich student learning. Akōnga were encouraged to be actively involved every step of the way - and the planning, pricing, and promoting of the Sale all presented opportunities for student leadership, and real-life implementation of science, English, arts, and maths concepts.
“We had nearly 30 volunteer bakers cooking up a storm over the weekend. We also sold kūmara from our garden and some plants that our property manager potted up for us. The Bake Sale ran before school and during the two breaks throughout the day...and we raised $733! ”
Kauri Park School’s Bake Sale in action
Here at Garden to Table, we loved supporting schools nationwide to plan and deliver their Bake Sales - although seeing students from Howick Primary School shine on The AM Show was a definite highlight for our team!
Thank you so much to William Waiirua, Ryan Bridges, and Melissa Chan-Green for chatting to these tamariki, and helping raise awareness of our kaupapa.
Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to Westgold Butter, for sponsoring and raising awareness of the Bake Sale, and kindly supplying 10 blocks of butter to each participating school to get them started with their baking.
We’re also immensely grateful to Kenwood, who kindly offered a Kenwood MultiPro FPM910 Food Processor to eligible participating schools. Congratulations to Kauri Park School for winning this exciting prize!
Finally, ngā mihi nui to all those who supported their local Bake Sale - whether that was spreading the word, buying baking, or offering words of encouragement to the local tamariki.