West Coast Growing with Garden to Table and Westgold

The West Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand is renowned for its breathtaking landscapes that stretch from wild, rugged coastlines to lush, dense rainforests. This stunning area of the country is where our valued partners Westgold proudly call home. 

The West Coast is also one of the newest regions to embrace the Garden to Table programme and Awahono School have recently joined us, intertwining their love of gardening with kitchen creativity to build life-long skills and knowledge. Read on to see how they got started and what the future holds for this enthusiastic little school nestled in the heart of the West Coast.  

Last year students at Awahono school started hanging out in the school garden. This is a lovely space to potter about under the mature fig, apple and plum trees. The fenced garden area hints at a history of untold abundance and peace.  

The students got to work growing seedlings in the small grow house with the help of a Teacher Aide. Soon a garden group formed on a Wednesday lunchtime, and the garden was being visited multiple times per week by students and teachers alike. Students made bilingual signs to communicate tasks that needed to be done and painted rocks to add that aesthetic.  

Plans were made to develop the garden and the school reached out to Garden to Table as a way to integrate the curriculum and offer structure to teaching and learning through the seasons, cycles and mahi of getting kai from the soil to the plate.  

The Garden to Table programme is just beginning on Wellbeing Wednesday this Term with support from the Board of Trustees, Principal, Teachers and whānau. All students will have a chance to participate in the Garden to Table programme with one class participating each week.  

So far teachers and teacher aides are running the kitchen and garden sessions, with the goal this term to welcome parent and whānau volunteers to run the kitchen and garden sessions. ‘The first few sessions have gone smoothly, and it was lovely to see the students sitting together around trestle tables to eat their pizzas’ says teacher Katie Nisbett. 

So far the students are learning to practice routines in the kitchen and researching related topics like ‘what is compost?’. A few keen gardeners used their initiative and know how to prune the laterals on the tomatoes independently.  

Now, midway through the first term and so much has been happening to set up the program. Two 1000L water tanks for the garden are being set up to collect rainwater from the shed roof. A space in the caretaker’s shed has been allocated to develop an indoor Garden to Table classroom for rainy days and a place to store tools, seeds and other learning material.  

There’s plans to plant feijoa trees this winter and put comfrey in large circles around the fruit trees. This will help to eliminate the grass and offer large leaves for the compost or fresh garden mulch. 

It’s clear this school are off to a flying start with their Garden to Table programme and they have so much passion and enthusiasm from the ākonga (students) right through to the Board of Trustees. We can’t wait to see what the future holds and where their learning takes them.  

Our friends at Westgold are so happy to see schools on the coast thriving, growing and blossoming within the Garden to Table programme. Ngā mihi Westgold for your support both as our partner and on the ground community support on the coast. We can’t wait to see the delicious kai ākonga (students) across the motu bake at our upcoming Bake Sale, kindly sponsored by Westgold. Watch this space!  

Garden to Table is currently in over 310 schools around the motu including three on the West Coast. There is now a Regional Coordinator dedicated to Te Tai Poutini – West Coast and Whakatū - Nelson, who offers support through events, hui, trainings and guidance. We look forward to welcoming more West Coast schools to the Garden to Table hapori (community) over the coming years.