ASK Brian Hosking for advice on how to get children eating vegetables and he says “let them grown their own”.
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The school kitchen garden specialist has been working with Bendigo primary school students for eight years on transforming nature strips and overrun gardens into vibrant fruit and veggie patches.
For the past six and a half years he has been a popular figure at Bendigo Violet Street Primary School, where the facility's 156 students know him not as Mr Hosking, but 'Brian'.
He says he loves imparting knowledge of both gardening and the nutritional value of the various varieties of beans, lettuces, potatoes, silverbeet, tomatoes and other treats found in the school's gardens.
His is one of more than 30 veggie gardens operating in primary schools across Bendigo, including three - California Gully, Eaglehawk and Heathcote - which run the popular Stephanie Alexander Garden Program.
Mr Hosking is convinced the best way to influence children’s eating habits is to get them excited about fresh foods and to engage them in the process.
It comes as new Heart Foundation data shows 91.4 per cent of Bendigo residents do not eat enough vegetables daily, a sprinkling above the Victorian average of 91.3 per cent.
In Loddon Shire the figure is 91.3 per cent, and in Buloke Shire 87.7 per cent.
Mr Hosking believed the alarming figures pointed to a “generational” problem which would only be rectified slowly.
“Hopefully starting them young and getting kids out in the garden earlier and tasting their own vegetables, that will eventually have an affect on their kids later in life,” he said.
“There’s something too about growing our own veggies, they taste better. They’re fresh, so therefore kids in particular when they try those vegetables, they’re are going to eat them again.
“They’ve enjoyed planting the seed, watching it grow, preparing the food and then enjoyed eating it.”
The City of Greater Bendigo, through its Healthy Together Bendigo partnership, has been supporting schools and early childhood services to develop garden programs as an important element of healthy eating education and action.
There’s something too about growing our own veggies, they taste better.
- Brian Hosking
The proof is in the eating with the number of schools operating gardens increasing at a rapid rate.
Several schools have cooking education alongside their garden program, while many use the garden as an education setting, linking it to existing curriculum in more traditional subjects like maths, science and English.
Council’s active and healthy communities manager Patrick Jess said there were many educational and social benefits of garden programs.
“Many children do not have the basic knowledge of where their food comes from and the processes involved in growing, harvesting and preparing it,” he said.
“Teaching children from a young age about healthy eating should be a part of their education and it is important to turn around the undesirable statistics we are seeing.”