Schools get green thumbs up
Grants facilitate chicken coops, beehives, medicinal herbs and gardens for learning
Kiwi kids are leading the way to sustainability with plans for chicken coops, beehives, Ma¯ori medicinal herbs and vege gardens in schools around the country.
Thirty schools have been awarded a share of $25,000 to help kick-start their planet-friendly projects thanks to Countdown supermarket.
Two boys from Waitoki Primary School, near Silverdale, impressed selectors with plans for a chicken coop at their rural school.
Year 8 pupils Damian Traill, 12, and Cameron Reardon, 13, spent four weeks researching, costing and planning the coop.
“They were so thrilled when they heard they had been successful and we had the funds to go ahead with it,” teacher Linda Westbrooke said.
“They learned so many new skills filling in the forms, researching council laws and planning the area of the chicken coop.”
The boys knew the coop had to be safe for the chickens and easy for children to clean and collect eggs.
“We also have a beautiful vegetable garden here so the learning will be ongoing and eggs will be part of the Garden to Table programme,” Westbrooke said.
The school has a community shelf where excess produce can be placed for school families to enjoy.
The pupils applied for funding from the supermarket through its Growing for Good programme.
Other initiatives included installation of beehives with plans to make reusable beeswax lunch wraps, planting gardens with traditional Ma¯ori plants for medicinal purposes and installing a rainwater tank for an existing vege patch.
Countdown general manager of corporate affairs and sustainability Kiri Hannifin said the company was blown away by the huge number of applications it received.
“We were so impressed by creative ideas,” Hannifin said.
“It’s fantastic to see our young tamariki and their schools so passionately engaged with weaving environmentalism and sustainability into everyday learning.” the
It’s fantastic to see our young tamariki and their schools so passionately engaged with weaving environmentalism and sustainability into everyday learning. Countdown’s Kiri Hannifin