Against food waste
The school’s main concern is food waste and Olive Picking is just one of a string of projects that are all connected to this main theme and to the school organic farm – which was originally a derelict area. Once formed, the organic farm became the hub for initiatives related to healthy eating. Through contacts with various farmers (mostly relatives of the teachers and/or students) students learned agricultural skills and were soon growing their own vegetables and fruits at school. They also decided to sell the produce (for fundraising purposes to maintain the farm) to their teachers and families.
In their efforts to keep the production as organic as possible, the students decided to keep a compost bin which was maintained mainly through garden waste from the farm itself. While collecting garden waste from the garden of the Sisters of St Dorothy convent, students noticed that a large percentage of olives was being wasted. They enquired about this and learned that the community of sisters used to pick the olives themselves to produce olive oil, however they had to discontinue this practice because of their old age. This was what sparked the Olive Picking project.
