PROMOTING unhealthy eating habits through school chocolate bar fundraisers will become a thing of the past with an initiative on offer to Brimbank schools.
Victoria University has devised a calorie-free and green fundraising program with a difference.
Its Iramoo Sustainable Community Centre is offering schools in Melbourne’s western region the chance to sell native wildflower, shrub or grass seedlings, known by such charming common names as native bluebells, leek lilies, running postman, chamomile sunrays, and golden billy buttons.
VU ranger and interpretation officer Melissa Doherty said the project was piloted late last year with 10 primary and secondary schools in Brimbank.
Ardeer Primary School was one of the schools that participated in the program and assistant principal Janette Cronin said half the seedlings the school obtained from Iramoo were sold, which helped pay for the other half to be planted in the school grounds.
Ms Doherty said the school got 40 fundraiser boxes, each containing 48 seedling tubestock.
“The schools buy the seedlings for $1 each, then decide on their own sale price, usually a dollar or two higher,” she said.
Ms Doherty said most of the trial schools had been looking for new fundraising products that were also educational.
“Many teachers were expressing disappointment that fundraising products these days are made in China or need to be bulk-ordered. Along with the seedlings, we supply species and conservation reports, and suggest activities that promote environmental education,” she said.
Students can learn while they earn through a range of activities, such as calculating sales figures and profits, researching their local environment, or writing fact sheets or gardening tips for buyers.
The seedlings are all propagated at the 43-hectare Iramoo Centre at VU’s St Albans Campus. Iramoo is named after the Woiwurung name for the grassy wildflower plains that once ringed Melbourne.
It serves to educate the community about sustainability and the environment with its native nursery, seed bank and education and conservation projects.
