The Garden to Table Trust has championed the kitchen and garden as classroom for more than 10 years. Photo / Supplied
The Garden to Table Trust has championed the kitchen and garden as classroom for more than 10 years. Photo / Supplied
National food education charity Garden to Table Trust is making it easier for parents to share the meaning of Anzac Day this year.
The charity will be making its entire Dig for Victory Anzac Day resource available for parents to download and use at home from April 17, including a recipe for See in the Dark Anzac Biscuits.
The module takes children through a virtual Anzac Day journey via their kitchen and garden, explaining the history behind the Dig for Victory and Grow a Row vegetable traditions that originated during World War II.
The lessons are designed not only to educate youth on growing and cooking food for themselves, but also to look positively into the future, beyond our current environment.
Garden to Table executive officer Linda Taylor says, "Anzac Day traditions such as these are examples of how our country has previously managed to pull together in the face of adversity, and we can do it again.
Queues outside supermarkets today are a reminder of the rationing queues during World War II. Photo / Supplied
"We would love to see families all over the country getting out into the garden to Grow a Row of vegetables, or making Anzac biscuits with rosemary, poppy seeds and carrots," says Mrs Taylor.
"Lessons include the history behind these vegetable-growing campaigns, why we use rosemary for remembrance, poppies at Anzac Day, and the World War II reason we believe carrots are good for our eyesight!"
Supplemented with photos from the Alexander Turnbull Library and the Imperial War Museum, the resource also links with New Zealand primary curriculum objectives and offers a range of at-home learning activities that children can complete independently.
"Children can examine images of a ration book and make a link between the limits on food in supermarkets today with the rationing that occurred during the war.
"Old photographs of queues outside grocery stores remind us of queues outside the supermarket today, for example," says Mrs Taylor.
"It's a great opportunity to provide some context for the current situation for our children, while also recognising the importance of Anzac Day. And, like everything we do at Garden to Table, it's based around practical and fun hands-on learning."
Dig for Victory and Grow a Row vegetable traditions originated during World War II. Photo / Supplied
The Dig for Victory Campaign resource is available on the Garden to Table website until Anzac Day, at www.gardentotable.org.nz.
The Garden to Table Trust is a charity focused on food education and has championed the kitchen and garden as classroom for over 10 years.
It works by building life skills through practical hands-on, child-centric classes, which are linked to the school curriculum.
It teaches children how to grow and prepare food and encourages the eating of fresh food.
It has achieved success in engaging with schools, parents and communities to build awareness of individual and collective environmental responsibility.
Garden to Table schools work with primary and intermediate school children in a productive vegetable garden and home-style kitchen every week.
