General News
23 August, 2020
Students eat fresh at Mareeba High
Here is why students at Mareeba State High School have some of the freshest food in their tuckshop
Students at Mareeba State High School (MSHS) consume some of the freshest food in the state with produce from their very own garden grown on the school grounds and harvested 30 minutes before lunch.
As part of their assessment the Year 12 “Science in Practice” class has been growing and maintaining a commercial garden with produce including fresh lettuce, tomatoes, parsley and snow peas all going into the schools salads.
The students plan their gardens according to the tuckshops demand for produce and which vegetables would yield the most in the climate at any given time of the year.
MSHS Head of Department for Science Jason Richardson is excited to see the theory that he teaches in the classroom transferred into the garden.
“We’ve done all the theory behind how plants grow and now we’ve put it all into practice,” he said.
“Mareeba has such an important horticulture area so it’s a really good step into seeing the sorts of careers they could get into.
“There is a lot of demand for skilled labour in the horticulture industry and I’m hoping that this will be a gateway for the students to get into further training or study.”
Mr Richardson has plans for the schools commercial garden to play a much larger role in students learning after the program went by the wayside three years ago.
