Costa launches regenerate program on the Bellarine

ST Leonards Primary School has had the pleasure of welcoming gardening extraordinaire Costa Georgiadis to their school to help celebrate the progress of their Regenerate Our School program.

Mr Georgiadis made his special visit to the Bellarine school last Thursday, educating students and congratulating them on their efforts to produce lower food kilometres, lower power consumption and their overall commitment to becoming sustainably sufficient.

St Leonards Primary School Environmental, Health and Wellbeing leader Benjamin McDonald said the school was thrilled to have Costa connect with the students both in the classroom and in the garden.

“Costa was just great with our students… he just has that knack of being able to relate to the kids in and out of the garden, particularly with the persona of the garden gnome,” Mr McDonald said.

“Some really good questions were asked of him and he was just able to get down to the children’s level… they were really engaged with him telling them about how living out of the garden is achievable.

“It’s spurred them on to be involved with what we are doing and it was well worth the visit from Costa.”

With the support of the Farm My School offering, which is established at the Bellarine High School, the program fosters children’s ability and knowledge of growing produce and connecting with the environment.

“The program aims to give the students a mindset of sustainability… some kids were surprised where eggs were from and the origins of exotics like cumquats, mandarins and raspberries,” Mr McDonald said.

“It’s about exposing the students to where the produce comes from and making it achievable for them to do it at school and at home with their family…. we see it as an important part of their future.”

Mr McDonald said the end goal is to ultimately reduce their landfill at the school and to nurture the earth so that it can produce fruit and vegetables long into the future.