Deep pockets for kids

Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris says having teamed up with Garden to Table earlier in the year to develope and expand across New Zealand, the idea for the teaching resource - called Deep Pockets, Hōhonu te Pūkoro - stemmed from discussions about the ongoing development of the Garden to Table programme.

"Both organisations believe that learning basic money management skills is incredibly important and that these skills can help set up a young person for a successful future," he says. "We discovered a gap in hands-on learning resources to support knowledge development in this area and decided to create a new teaching resource that connects leaning to grow and cook food with improved financial literacy."

Garden to Table curriculum and community relations manager Victoria Bernard says the current cost-of-living crisis - particularly the significant price increases for many food items - only reinforced their view that this type of resource was necessary.

"Generally, these types of resources are only made available to schools participating in the Garden to Table programme, but both parties felt it was important to open up access to a wider audience," she says.

"The resource is targeted at Year 3 upward and we expect there will be plenty of interest in this, not just from primary schools, but intermediate and secondary schools too."

The resource outlines a ten-lesson teaching unit that helps students build their financial literacy skills by undertaking everyday garden and cooking activities, giving students the chance to handle real money, make financial decisions and produce a product to sell, then decide what to do with the profit earned.

"By the end of the unit, students will be able to complete a product plan, understand how borrowing and investing works, use and understand financial terms and vocabulary, make and sell a product and write a basic financial report," Charteris explains.

Bernard explains that as students move through the various lessons they are given the chance to take on roles like project manager, risk manager or marketing manager, helping to identify who might be best suited to certain roles and how they can work together as a team, all done in a low-risk context with guidance from their teacher.

"Schools already involved in the Garden to Table programme were given a heads-up that the resource was coming. Several have already indicated they're planning to start the unit in August, [and] we're also running a webinar for interested Garden to Table schools to talk them through the resource and answer any questions they might have."

For schools not currently part of the Garden to Table programme, further information on the new teaching resource can be found at: https://gardentotable.org.nz/