Kids School Garden Program left stranded by Petrol Station 'Rip-Off'

04 September 2008     Kids School Garden Program left stranded by Petrol Station €˜Rip-Off€™

A new sponsor is desperately needed for the Tewantin State School €˜Edible School Garden€™ to get the children back in the garden, learning healthy growing and eating principles that will last them for life, not to mention the simple enjoyment of growing their own food, something that is lacking in today€™s society.  Just recently Hilton Terrace Round About Coffee Petrol Station was proud to be sponsoring what they proudly termed the €˜Fuel for Food€™ programme.  Tewantin State School was approached by the Service Station to be the pilot programme in conjunction with Leonie Shanahan€™s Edible School Gardens Program.

 €˜Digging bright future€™, 'How one servo is helping motorists save the planet one full tank at a time', and 'Sowing Seeds for a sustainable future' were just a few of the headlines this service station received from local media in recent months, supposedly dispelling the myth of the €˜greedy petrol station rip-offs€™€¦

Just a few short months later, the kids at Tewantin State School have had their project garden suspended due to non payment of promised sponsorship funds.  The much touted programme was supposed to have 2c from every litre sold at the service station to go to the Tewantin State School Edible School Garden under the auspices of the €˜Fuel for Food€™ programme.  Many parents of students, and other local community members attended this Service Station specifically to help raise funds for the kids to have their own garden at the school.  Friends of the garden have mentioned that up until only last week, the staff were still telling people that 2c of every litre was going to the programme, and the spare change wishing well on the counter had around $98.00 dollars in it, though unfortunately, Mr Moore, the petrol station owner, does not see fit to pass any funds on to the school programme.

Leonie Shanahan was first approached in July 2007 by Brett Robb, the then Manager, of the Petrol Station to be involved in an environmentally friendly local community project.  On June the 13th of this year, the children and many local community members all came together to prepare the area for growing.  Now just over 2 months later the whole project is suspended due to lack of funds, as the owner of the Petrol Station, Jim Moore, will not commit to the future sponsorship of the project, nor pay past funds collected from the community for the programme, though he does add, that he €œsees the value in the project for the students€.

Leonie Shanahan is at a loss as to how to continue the project for the school without the promised sponsorship.  Tewantin project currently is growing over 100 types of salads, vegetables & herbs, planted over 300 seeds & seedlings, and of course the other associated labour costs involved that are now past due.  The children get an awful lot out of the garden, besides the obvious health benefits and education that is so necessary in this ever growing climate of childhood obesity, the pride and sense of achievement that is experienced, and of particular note is that the special needs children also participate in this programme receiving a great feeling of self-fulfilment.  Leonie would hate to see the garden go to dust and the children not have the garden get to the stage where it can be confidently managed by the teachers and students themselves.  Please contact Leonie via www.edibleschoolgardens.com.au or phone 0420 650 448 if you think you can assist in ensuring this garden continues to grow!

Graphic attached: A severely disappointed Leonie Shanahan in her promotional TV with media copies of the program

 

Notes:  Media mentions of this programme in the local media...

23 Jul 2007  Sunshine Coast Daily
'How one servo is helping motorists save the planet one full tank at a time'

21 Feb 2008  Noosa Journal - Journal Business
'Servo goes green in bid to boost garden scheme'

14 Jun 2008  Sunshine Coast Daily
'Digging bright future'

13 Jun 2008 Local Channel 7 News article (similar vein to the above article)

08 Jun 2008  Noosa River Living
'Sowing Seeds for a sustainable future'

17 Jun 2008  Noosa News
'Three Rs and digging'

August/September 2008  Sunshine Coast ECO News
Fuelling the future

Online Articles & Audio...

The 'Fuel for Schools' Program http://www.fourwallsandaroof.com.au/news.html

Fuel offsets fund edible garden in Tewantin (13 Jun 08) http://www.maroochy.qld.gov.au/scrc/sitePage.cfm?code=scrc_news&id=4868

Fuel for Schools - Aug 14th, 2008 http://econews.org.au/fuel-for-schools/

Saving The Planet--Tank By Tank - 23 July 2007
http://travestonswamp.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2962&sid=e344208c3517b8ca4b171ccf216d7023

Growing green - 12:00a.m. 14th June 2008 http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008/jun/14/growing-green/

Sowing seeds for a sustainable future http://riverliving.com.au/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=78&Itemid=50

Audio on ABC http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/links/October2007.htm

# A Qld Servo gives a petrol discount ... not to customers, but to a green project (audio) (4 October) Brett Robb's trying to save the world - one tank at a time. He explains to Shon Walker (Environment Carbon Offset)