The school’s years three to six children spend a minimum of 45 minutes a week in its Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden – a permaculture garden sown, tended and harvested by students to provide fresh eco-friendly produce for the canteen.

Established in 2007, the school was one of the first nine in the state to trial the initiative.

In addition to time spent in the garden children spend one and a half hours in the school kitchen classroom preparing and sharing hearty dishes from their own produce.

Using 100 per cent rainwater, fresh chook poo fertiliser and fresh eggs from the chickens, the food prepared by students is chemical, pesticide and preservative free.

“We sit down and have a lunchtime meal, all the kids try the food and if they don’t want to finish it they don’t have to but a lot of kids are hooking in and trying the food,” Bungwahl’s kitchen garden specialist Nikki Dixon said.

“And they’re getting involved in cooking the food and having a pleasant time trying the foods and discovering they like them.”

The project is a practical education in sustainable living with minimal impact on the environment building lifelong skills to help them reduce their environmental footprint and minimise carbon emissions.

Nikki said as opposed to giving students rigid rules on nutrition and diets, the taste, flavour and texture of foods are emphasised.

“There are children trying the food now who would never have tried it before. We made eggplant pesto scrolls one day and the students weren’t very happy about that saying ‘oh can we make it without the eggplant’,” Nikki said.

“But once they cooked the eggplant and created the pesto they tried it and we’re really surprised to discover that they liked it.”

Nikki said the secret is cooking the food and changing it into an appealing form and flavour.