AUSVEG VIC’s Schools on Farms program has partnered with project owners, Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority to deliver a new cross industry Farms2Schools program – designed to get primary and secondary schools engaged with agriculture.

Farms2Schools is a new and innovative Victorian Government-funded program that is providing primary and secondary students with insights into how agricultural products get from the paddock to their plate.

Using online school incursions, the online program introduces students to farmers and agricultural industry workers from their local area in the Port Phillip and Western Port region in Victoria, who share information about farming through a range of visual and practical activities.

A range of resources and links have been developed as part of the Farms2Schools program. These aim to help teachers continue their lesson around sustainable agriculture with students.

They include a Buying Local Produce: Broccoli activity sheet which provides a case study featuring AUSVEG VIC President and Director of Gazzola Farms Paul Gazzola.

The case study highlights the value-chain journey of broccoli grown at Paul’s farm in the Mornington Peninsula, to the packing shed, distribution centre, markets, etc. It also provides a market-garden value-chain scenario, detailing the broccoli’s journey from packing shed direct to farmgate consumer sales.

Meanwhile, a series of videos show students how some farms propagate and look after their own seedlings to plant out as crops in their paddocks.

The videos feature Peelman Produce’s Erin Peelman, Mossy Willow Farm’s Tom Kennett, and Kate and Donna Brancatisano and Sophie O’Neil from Torello Farms:

With COVID-19 impacting on-farm visits, Velisha Farms Managing Director Catherine Velisha wowed students with a Zoom incursion where she provided children a tour of her vegetable operation and the process her lettuces go through to get ready for retail sale.

Boomaroo Nurseries will also engage with the program’s ‘virtual farm’ tour which is set to take place later this year.

The virtual farm component is being developed by Alice Zaslavsky’s production company, Edible Adventures Productions.

Alice is the project lead for the Hort Innovation-funded strategic levy investment Phenomenom.

Other resources promoted from the vegetable industry include:

• AUSVEG Consumer Resource Centre: videos. vegetable educational resources for all ages
• Phenomenon: lessons and videos focused on vegetables, nutrition and science (Educational opportunities around perceptions of, and aversions to, vegetables through digital media (VG16018) is a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Vegetable Fund).

The Farms2Schools project is delivered by the Port Phillip & Westernport CMA in partnership with AUSVEG VIC and is supported by the Victorian Government’s Working for Victoria initiative.

Schools on Farms is an AUSVEG VIC self-funded industry-led initiative, with support from Boomaroo Nurseries.