SPC takes up Challenge
St Peter Chanel students will be laughing all the way to the dinner table now that they’ve tickled their tomatoes for the Summer Challenge.
SPC will this week added tomato plants to the school veggie garden to celebrate the launch of the Summer Challenge – and some students were already licking their lips.
“We grow vegetables so we can eat them,” said Zoe Curtis, 8.
“They’re part of our food.
“They give you heaps of energy and keep you fit and it helps your grow.”
The Summer Challenge is a series of 8 tasks, including the Tickle a Tomato growing challenge, designed to give local kids and their families ideas on how get the most out of what is fresh, fun and cheap during the warmer months.
Much more than just digging a hole, The Tickle a Tomato challenge encourages children to get active in the garden
St Peter Chanel is one of 24 schools taking on the challenge on the top of the south, including 4 Motueka-based schools.
SPC principal Gail Kissick said the tomatoes were planted alongside corn, lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and radishes.
At this stage of the year, only the radishes were ready for eating and most students were happy to have a nibble straight from the ground.
“When they get big, they get spicy,” said Ryan Hay, 8.
“I don’t like them,” he said – and most of the class agreed.
Mrs Kissick said the garden had been created by SPC’s junior school students as part of their focus on sustainability.
“While the younger students are growing their vegetable garden, the older students have developed a bokashi and composting systems. It’s not just about this garden, it’s about continued sustainability practices for future years,” she said.
“So what they’re seeing is a cycle. We’re using food scraps and organic waster and building it into compost and then using it to grow veggies that they can see and pick.
“One of the messages we’re trying to get across to the children is, that you can have a healthy diet, without it costing you a lot of money.
“The summer challenge helps us spread the message.”
The students have a few ideas about what they’d do when the garden is ready for harvest.
“We’re going to sell the corn over the holidays so we can buy more seed for next year,” said Evangeline Wensley, 8.
“I’d like to share them,” said Lily Green, 6.
“I’d like to take some home,” said Anahera Hailes-Paku, 6.
The Summer Challenge is a public education campaign designed by the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board’s Nutrition and Physical Activity programme (NPA).
It will provide a yellow drawstring backpack, a tennis ball and tomato seeds to 5,000 local families.
NPA programme director Helen Steenbergen said the Summer Challenge would help families make the healthy option, the easy option.
“We know how hard it can be to get kids eating their veggies and getting enough exercise. We created the Summer Challenge to help,” she said.
“This could be real fun for your family and have real benefits.
“With these ideas, you’ll find that doing the right thing doesn’t take lots of time or money.”
Mrs Kissick said the Summer Challenge helped reinforce the messages at home.
“Any efforts to improve nutrition and exercise have to be done in partnership with the parents,” Mrs Kissick said.
“If it’s not reinforced at home then it won’t work.
“We want them to go home and say, ‘hey, we’re growing a vege garden at school, can we do it at home?’.
“And if children get the same healthy messages about food and exercise at home and at school, then they will adopt a healthy attitude for life.
“The summer challenge aims to get parents involved making small, sustainable behavioural changes.”
