15 November 2017

By Tate Papworth 

Catholic Regional College, St Albans has won the community secondary school leadership section at Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart Schools Awards for the second year in a row.

The award is recognition of the school’s Community Food Project, which promotes fresh food diversity and sustainability by working with the local community.

College teacher Hayden O’Doherty said the school was thrilled to receive the award for a second consecutive year.

‘We’re really pleased that the program has been recognised again,’ he said. ‘It’s really turned into a bit of an enterprise.

‘We grow fresh food at three different sites spread across St Albans and Keilor and also have a garden at the school.

‘We also work with volunteers to run sites at parks and rent a space at a farm in Keilor.’

The school has developed a partnership with the St Albans food bank through the program.

‘When the fresh food is available, our students take it to the food bank where our year 8 students volunteer,’ Mr O’Doherty said.

‘We currently have 1300 bulbs of garlic growing at the farm in Keilor, which equates to about $3000 and will be donated to the food bank, too.’

Sustainability Victoria interim chief executive Stephanie Ziersch said the efforts of St Albans’ Catholic Regional College were what the awards were all about.

‘The awards really are the ultimate ‘show and tell’ and celebrate the achievement of schools across the state that are committed to sustainable action,’ she said.

‘It’s fantastic that schools are seeing the results from taking positive actions.’

For more news about CRC St Albans’ sustainability work, read this article about the coding project they took to the 2017 Melbourne Water Kids Teaching Kids Conference (October 2017).