Supporting Pick of the Crop to grow in your school.
Here you’ll find a selection of resources to support your school in growing the Pick of the Crop program.
Farmer and Food Connections
Connecting schools with local growers, producers and farmers provides a great opportunity for students to experience all stages of ‘paddock to plate’.
These fact sheets have been designed for schools to gain more information on how they can connect with farmers or agriculture businesses.
Teaching and Learning Support
Integrating Pick of the Crop activities into the classroom is important to provide students with knowledge and understanding of the paddock to plate process. This activity pack includes links to the Curriculum, instructions on growing beans from seeds in the classroom, and a resource list.
Fun classroom activities:
Whole-school environment
Embedding and sustaining a positive school food culture through school gardens, tuckshops, fundraising and events builds a healthy whole-school environment. This has been demonstrated by Pick of the Crop schools.
Sustainable school gardens
Schools are establishing or boosting their gardens to provide a range of benefits for students. Gardens provide opportunities to grow, taste and eat veggies and fruit, and can also improve behaviour, concentration, and attitudes. These resources can help schools set up and manage a garden during the holidays.
Connecting with school tuckshops
School tuckshops can encourage students and staff to choose and eat more veggies and fruit during the school day. This resource highlights the importance of tuckshops and presents ways on how you could connect the tuckshop with Pick of the Crop actions in your school.
Eat the alphabet
Eat the Alphabet encourages Queensland children to try fresh, locally-grown produce. This video, partly funded by Health and Wellbeing Queensland, designed and created by Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers Ltd, features 5 small schools from the Gin-Gin region and produce grown in the Bundaberg region.
Under 8’s day activities and ideas
Schools often hold under 8’s day events as part of the national initiative. This resource provides a range of fun and nutritious ideas and activities you could provide in your school, to make sure Pick of the Crop is integrated across all your school events.
Marsden State School Gardens Masterclass
Go on a guided tour of Marsden State School’s bush tucker garden to learn about traditional plants and their uses, as well as how to set up a sustainable garden.
Hervey Bay and Bundaberg workshops with Matt Golinski
Celebrity Chef Matt Golinski travelled to Bundaberg and Wide Bay to provide parents, carers and students with top tips on how to prepare nutritious family dinners and school lunchboxes. Using local produce, the workshops were fun and interactive, with participants having the opportunity to taste Matt’s dishes and prepare their own.
Logan City Special School Cooking event with Matt Golinski
Join the children of Logan City Special School and Celebrity Chef, Matt Golinski for some food fun—preparing, making and eating delicious rice paper rolls. With ingredients sourced from their abundant veggie garden, students learn about of food from ground to plate.
Watch more of Matt Golinski’s school cooking demonstrations.
Watch the following videos about what our partners, parents and students had to say about the Hervey Bay and Bundaberg workshops with Matt Golinski.
Parent Connections
Connecting with parents and carers is important to encourage the availability of healthy choices at home for students. Schools commonly connect with parents and carers through newsletters and social media.
This resource explores facilitators and barriers of parental engagement, with recommendations on how schools can optimise parent connections through Pick of the Crop.
These resources include sample articles on a range of evidence-based food and nutrition topics to help inform the school community through newsletters or by social media. Schools are encouraged to copy these (acknowledging Health and Wellbeing Queensland).
Cost of Living:
Rising cost of living is impacting healthy eating. This factsheet provides practical tips and tricks to help families increase veggie and fruit intake without breaking the budget.
Smart Swaps:
Simple swaps to food and drinks choices can create healthier eating patterns now and into the future. This factsheet provides some easy and simple swaps you could try with kids.
Recipes:
Click the titles below to download the recipe card.
- Banana and Blueberry Loaf
- Fully loaded Spaghetti Bolognese
- Garlic Chicken Wrap
- Herb and Potato Fish Cakes
- Mango, Avocado and Macadamia Salad
- Pineapple Ginger Salsa
- Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry
- Raw Beetroot and Pear Salad
- Rice Paper Rolls
- Roasted Vegetable Frittata
- Savoury Muffins
- Watermelon and Berry Water
Stay Connected
Regional coordinators work with Pick of the Crop schools in their region during the school year. This includes face to face meetings, online support, termly newsletters, organising events or making connections with other stakeholders.
Pick of the Crop schools are able to join a Closed Facebook Group. This is used to share learnings, information, network and promote programs or resources for schools to use locally.
Resources and information on the Pick of the Crop website, along with news and stories are regularly updated.
For more information around support, schools should contact their regional coordinator or pickofthecrop@hw.qld.gov.au.
Last updated 25 November 2024
