Junior Make it to Market Program Report

Transcription

1 The Junior make it to market project coordinator Christianne Goss worked with the Institute of Regional Development and local school groups to deliver the project. The intended engagement outcomes of the Junior make it to market project was to increase greater awareness of, and contribution to, the invaluable and vital role the Farmers Market play in the North West Coast agricultural community and regional economy. To contribute to the profile and growth of the Farmers Markets audience and participants. To provide an innovative and hands on, community based learning experience for young people and to enhance and further develop the crucial relationships between the North West school community, UTAS and the Cradle Coast campus. This project also leveraged off the DAFF Make it to Market project which was a huge success. Eighteen schools were initially contacted and although the initial response to the project was quite positive, the enthusiasm was short lived. Apart from the short time frame for creating/producing goods for sale, most schools find third term to be busy filled with school fetes, sports and swimming carnivals etc. therefore some schools felt they were already overcommitted. Another barrier to the project was the amalgamations occurring in some northwest schools and this meant that any spare time teachers may have had was focussed on packing up resources and so they were not prepared to take on more activities. Nevertheless eight schools, over one third, took part. The list of schools involved include Wynyard High Acton School, Havenview Primary, Natone District School, Yolla District School, Boat Harbour Primary, Burnie Primary and Cooee Primary. For a more detailed breakdown of schools and products produced see the table below. School Wynyard Farmers Market Burnie Farmers Market What they did Wynyard High School Yes Yes Wooden planter boxes, wooden wheel barrow planters and Gourmet biscuits. Cooee Primary School No Yes Potted plants Acton School Yes Yes Vegetable quiches, seeds, seedlings, wind turbines made from recycled plastic bottles, biscuits and slices, fresh vegetables. Burnie Primary School No Yes Worm juice, walnuts, cards, vegetables Havenview Primary School No Yes Leaf bookmarks, decorative plant spikes. Natone District School Yes Yes Potted plants, eggs. Yolla District School Yes Yes Cooked biscuits and slices, potted plants, seedlings, flowers, eggs and fresh vegetables. 1

2 Boat Harbour Primary School Yes Yes Pottery plant spikes The Junior Make it to Market venture was linked to existing programs in some schools as follows: Wynyard High School Some of the students involved in the MDT classes were able to put their skills to practical use in the creation of the wooden wheelbarrows, planter boxes and saw horsed and funds raised were to be passed on the Men s Shed which is situated at Wynyard High School. Many of the student s fathers are involved in this shed and it runs through voluntary involvement and fund raising so this was a very positive connection that students at the school were able to make. Gourmet biscuits were also produced by two female grade 10 students who were also participating in Certificate 1 in Hospitality. Creating these biscuits for sale reinforced many of their learning experiences and gave them real life experience in marketing, labelling and packaging as well as selling. Acton School Links were made to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program. Part of the program involves growing a school vegetable garden and then cooking produce from the school garden. Acton Primary students had made vegetable quiches, veggie muffins in their classes and so they produced these as well as other foods that had ingredients grown in the garden. As the market was at the end of the school year students harvested some potatoes, and broad beans grown in the garden, vegetables that were not able to be cooked as the school cooking program was at an end. Students also produced some garden wind turbines from recycling plastic drink bottles, packaged seeds for sale as well as growing some seedlings for sale. Students were able to participate in the marketing through the packaging and pricing of goods as well as selling to the public at the Burnie market giving students authentic learning experiences and allowing the school to showcase this successful program to the community. Yolla District High Yolla is a very proactive school as far as giving their students real life learning experiences throughout their learning. Students already produce goods for the Tulip Festival Yolla Meringues are famous and students raise and handle cattle and compete in the local show on an annual basis. The farmers market gave students a variety of opportunities and although only one class group took on this project they were able to produce a variety of foods, vegetables and also plants and flowers for sale. Students created their own labels for their products, each student collected their own money at the end of the program and many students served on the stall, marketing their wares. The parent involvement was fantastic. Burnie Primary School Burnie Primary School was very proactive in producing goods for sale. They already have a garden and worm farm so selling worm juice was a great link to an already established program. Walnuts were donated to the school from a local farm, packaged into kg bags. 2

3 Students created large signage to showcase their goods and this linked into literacy programs at the school. Prep students created beautiful Christmas cards and these were sold as well. Vegetables from gardens were also sold. Students and parents came along to the Burnie market and worked on the stall, some students carrying around their goods for sale. Who else was involved e.g. parents, teachers etc. The project coordinator tried to ensure that teachers were not overtaxed with duties. Christianne collected items from schools prior to market days and took it upon herself to set up and packed up the stall. At Wynyard, although only Yolla, Boat Harbour, Wynyard High and Havenview had items for sale, Yolla students had created their own roster to work on the stall. Wynyard High also provided a student to work on the stall. At the Burnie market day more schools participated, so a larger number of teachers, students and their families were there on the day. Yolla District High Yolla parents were very active and supportive at both Wynyard and Burnie Markets. Parents of students brought their fresh vegetables and flowers on the market days so that they were fresh. Yolla was interviewed by ABC Radio on the Rural report program, as part of the advertising for the market ventures, and this gave the school and students an opportunity to talk about their school program and what they were producing. Parents and students at Yolla were very proactive in the running of the Wynyard stall, liaising with the public, and generally selling the goods. Most of their stuff sold out. Burnie Primary School Burnie Market was their only venue for selling. Several students, and parents as well as a teacher came and helped at the Burnie stall. Burnie brought the own goods to the market on the market day. Acton School At Acton Christianne took on the role of facilitating produce for sale. In art class they made wind turbines and in cooking prepared food. The schools gardening coordinator, Rochelle Cunningham worked with students to harvest produce for sale. Team 6 at Acton, (Grade 1/2) grew seedlings for sale. As project coordinator Christianne took goods from school to both market days and was in charge of bringing items to the stall. A few students came along to assist the Burnie stall and as there cooking and art teacher Christianne facilitated the activities in her class time with students. Cooee Primary The potted plants were produced by the Cooee Grade 5/6 class. Two students came and served on the stall at Burnie Market. Wynyard High School One student from Wynyard High who had made the biscuits helped run the stall at Wynyard having an older student involved was a really good help. Wooden items were taken to both Wynyard and Burnie Markets but as project coordinator Christianne took on the role of selling these for WHS. 3

4 Boat Harbour, Havenview and Natone schools all had products to sell but it was not possible to coordinate getting students on board to help if there was more time for planning/making and a regular market day then schools would be more able to coordinate student participation etc. How did this project achieve its goals? The Junior Make it to Market has the potential of creating many marketeers of the future. Some students have a natural ability to market from an early age and students saw the potential of making money through their own efforts. More than half the schools involved had a representation of students at the markets, and although some schools have annual school fares not all schools do, so some students would not have experienced anything like this on a first hand basis prior to the markets. There is great potential for more involvement and I believe that if this became an annual event, with set dates for markets two times a year, schools may have the opportunity to plan for this from the start of the year, and this would result in more benefits for all involved. How did the Market achieve its goals on specific points? 1. Increasing a greater awareness of, and contribution to, the invaluable and vital role the Farmers market plays in the North West Coast agricultural community and regional economy: Some students never go to markets and so creating a school stall, and involving students in the marketing process through a Junior market creates a reason for them to go. This is especially important for students from low socio economic regions who would normally not go to these sorts of events. For some students involved in the market this was perhaps their first time at a market and working on a stall gave them the opportunity to talk to the public about their products, meant they had to learn about giving change from a $20.00 note, learned about selling their products. Being part of a productive marketing activity, and having this real life experience, seeing other stall holders and what they were selling, gave the students involved with insight into what it actually takes to produce for a market and a huge understanding of the process. 2. Contribute to the profile and growth of the Farmers Markets audience and participants: Getting people to markets is the key to building the profile of the markets. By involving schools, through this type of school market stall, will prove to be an important key in building the next generation of marketeers. If there were set dates to run School market stalls, say two a year; one at the end of first term and another around early December; it would enable teachers to build specific learning experiences based around marketing into the schools curriculum learning experiences. Learning experiences could be tailored to meet the needs of specific ages of students, but however it is implemented, the end result will be to increase the attraction of markets to a wider audience. 3. Provide an innovative and hands on, community based learning experience for young people: Students and teachers that became involved in this Junior Make it to Market project were provided with a fantastic opportunity for authentic learning. For High School students, especially those in years 9 & 10 who are being required to make decisions about their future direction, being involved in this project gave then an insight into the potential that small business opportunities can offer. Students saw how to make money and although for some, that money was put back into their school program, the actual experience of working on stall, talking to customers and to the public generally about their products and how they made them, place students in a realistic setting. All those involved were able to experience how a market runs, how stall holders support each other and work together. 4

5 Students were able to market their product in the way they thought would work the best. Some good examples of this occurred during the market. Learning the best strategies to use in selling, best practices is a hands on one: One student assistant rearranged the wooden wheel barrows to create a really dynamic appeal. I had just lined them up without too much thought about how they looked. I heard another student with the lettuces he had grown when he moved them to the front of the stall. He said I should have done that straight away, the customers could not see them properly. Towards the end of the Burnie Market one of the students decided that if we cut the prices and he went around with some of the cooking in a flat cardboard box, more like a tray, we would have a better opportunity of selling them. When he returned his tray was empty tray all the items had sold. It is these sorts of experiences that are only possible when students experience firsthand what it is like to sell products and are given the freedom and opportunity to see for themselves how to sell products. 4. Enhance and further develop the crucial relationships between the North West school community, UTAS and the Cradle Coast campus Apart from the opportunity to work in the market space which gave students an opportunity to see how other adult stall holders market and sell the wares, students were also given the opportunity to work alongside other schools and students from other schools, and work with staff from the Institute for Regional Development. This was more necessary at the Wynyard farmers market when Christianne Goss, was involved in doing a demonstration on Fruit Preserving for the DAFF Make it to market project, as only Wynyard High School and Yolla District High students were there to assist with the stall. Catherine Fernon from the Institute for Regional Development was on hand to offer support and to assist with parents and the Grade 4 teacher from Yolla. Pictured left are students at the Wynyard Junior Make it to Market stall. Jayme-Lee from Wynyard High School sold all the Gourmet Biscuits she brought along. At first she wasn t selling any and she dropped the price from $4.99 to $4.50 She ended up making around $95.00 from biscuit sales. One packet of gourmet biscuits were left, most of the Yolla cooking sold, all Yolla flowers sold like hot cakes, and surprisingly, even though it poured like crazy, the stall at Wynyard Market took in over $ The next week, at Burnie the stall topped $600.00, $200 of that was the Walnuts that Burnie Primary sold for $5.00 / kg. 5

6 Tallies for School Sales were handled as follows: Sales for the two markets totaled over $1, Money was collected using a central register system, each school was marked with coloured dots, depending on the school, and at the market and students recorded the sale and the school who made the money. Money was then tallied up at the end of the market day and distributed to schools in the week that followed the market. Archie Riddle of Wynyard Farmers Market donates 20 litres of Worm Juice for sale and money from sales was dived up between all the schools. Approximate breakdown of monies was as follows: Sales: Wynyard Junior Market Day = $ Burnie Junior Market Day = $ Natone...$ Yolla...$ Wynyard High...$ Acton...$ Boat Harbour...$ Burnie Primary.. $ Cooee $ Havenview. $

7 Kids from the Juniors Make it to Market project helping Chef Nigel Squibb at a cooking demonstration which was held as part of the DAFF Make it to Market Project. 7