Twelve days of Christmas:Gardening for learning, fun and a full belly

The Garden to Table programme provides kids with more than domestic skills.

Auckland Airport is giving $120,000 to 12 charities as part of its annual 12 days of Christmas. The Herald is profiling each initiative.

Getting out of the classroom and into the garden is making a big difference at more than 50 schools around New Zealand.

Primary school children at schools participating in the Garden to Table programme are tasked with growing, harvesting and transforming their own vegetables into healthy tasty meals that they eventually eat.

But it's not just domestic skills they are developing, the principals of the schools are also reporting better attendance and a great improvement in maths and literacy.

The Garden to Table Trust started seven years ago and has grown from three schools in the first year to about 50 across the country from Kaitaia to Christchurch.

Along with those schools involved in the full programme, there are many more schools - especially those in rural areas - that run their own version of the programme with guidance via the website.

Table to Garden founder and chairwoman Catherine Bell said the schools involved in the full programme were reporting an increase in numeracy and literacy and better attendance than those that were not part of the programme.

The children learn to grow, harvest and prepare the food which they eventually eat.

The trust has co-ordinators in Christchurch, Auckland and Northland who work with each school to set-up the programme and train a kitchen garden specialist employed by the school who runs the class with the help of the teachers.

The schools have full edible working gardens and a kitchen - often an extension of a hall kitchen with an additional oven or table - that the children work in.

Bell said the benefits of the programmes could be seen in many areas of the children's lives including schooling and lifestyle.

"Education obviously because learning outside a traditional classroom is very powerful for a lot of children because when they are in the kitchen and the garden they are learning maths, science, social studies and improving their literacy and there is really good evidence around that.

"From a health perspective benefits of learning what good food is and enjoying vegetables on a daily basis and taking that knowledge home."

Many of the boys also enjoyed the outdoor physical work from wheelbarrow races to using big spades to dig, she said.

Currently the schools only communicate with others in their own regions and the $10,000 grant from Auckland Airport will be used to fund a web forum on its website which will be launched next year.

Bell said with the number of schools involved in the programme expected to grow, it was becoming increasingly important for the teachers and kitchen garden specialists to be able to share knowledge and information regardless of where they were based.

"We don't currently have that and it's something the specialists and the teachers have been asking for."

Auckland Airport general manager of people and safety Anna Cassels-Brown said Garden to Table was a wonderful environmental and educational programme and even more important to the airport due to it working with Papatoetoe West School which was located near the airport.