Huon Valley Council has secured a grant of $56,500 through Healthy Tasmania for the Huon Valley Food Hub’s ‘Heartland: A Regenerative Farm School Program’.

The Heartland program is a trial project that will enable all public primary schools in the Huon Valley to have a thriving regenerative school farm, nourishing kitchen and access to locally grown produce and seeds.

The inspiration for this program was borne from the interest and desire expressed by the community and local schools. The idea was to create a model, similar to the Huon Valley Food Hub’s Farmgate Blitz project, that could work within and benefit local public schools.

The Heartland program aims to support the Huon Valley community, particularly the most vulnerable.

The program will be focused on a “seed to seed” and a “compost to compost” structure. Students will start with seeds and finish with seeds, following plants through their entire life cycle and learning many resilient skills along the way.

The concept has been designed to create a hands-on learning experience for schools through the support of local regenerative farming educators, enabling farms to grow and children and staff to be supported in their learning process.

The program will be delivered in collaboration with each local primary school, Cygnet Seed Library, Nadia Danti (permaculture educator), and Milkwood Permaculture.

The pilot program is expected to commence from July 2023, and conclude in late 2024.

Additional information can be found on our media release: Huon-Valley-Council-secures-funding-for-local-farm-school-program.pdf (huonvalley.tas.gov.au)

Image: Premier Jeremy Rockliff with Huon Valley Council’s Food Hub Projects Officer Emily Samuels-Ballantyne