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
New content coming soon
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 12 March 2024
