feedback futures
A vision of the future in growing hands…
Feedback Organic Recovery is a community solution that aims to reduce the amount of organic waste going to landfill. We collect food waste weekly and turn it into compost to grow good, local & sustainable food on urban farms around Newcastle!
We’ve launched a hands-on program for school children and their families to build awareness around sustainable, local agricultural practices and to give them the confidence to sustainably grow their own food.
This page lays out our five-stage program to bring to local schools that investigates students’ perceptions of food waste and food production, gets them learning about sustainable agriculture in a hands-on setting on our urban farm, and ultimately thinking about how sustainable practises can affect their own futures.
The 5 Modules
The following represents an example program consisting of all five modules and could be completed in two weeks, however this program is flexible and schools can be selective in which modules to pursue.
1
Students take a questionnaire
Online Activity – All Ages
In an initial survey we record the students’ current perspectives and gain an overall understanding of how they perceive food waste and food production in Australia.
2
Students visit Feedback’s urban farm
Class Excursion – All Ages
Covers Current Curriculum – Geographical Concepts – Place, Environment, Space, Sustainability and Change
Students, class by class, visit Feedback’s urban farm and are involved with all the processes required to maintain a localized closed-loop version of ‘food waste into food’, including:
- Composting of food waste from our food waste collection
- Propagating seeds for transplanting
- Transplanting seedlings into beds
- Harvesting mature plants
- Taking home seedlings in containers constructed out of repurposed waste
All of this whilst learning how the farm is managed in an urban context in a simple, casual and engaging manner.
Cost:
- 1-10 Students: $350 / session
- 11-20 Students: $450 / session
- 21-30 Students: $550 / session
- 30+ Students: $650 / session
3
‘Our Feedback Futures’
Classroom Activity – Year 5/6
Covers Current Curriculum – Geographical Concepts – Place, Environment, Space, Sustainability and Change
The following day, older students can undertake an interactive classrom activity based on envisioning two potential visions of what Australia might be like in the year 2040: one based on the country adopting the sustainable food practices that the students have learnt about on the farm and another in which the world does not adopt these practises.
The class is divided into two opposing groups, each assigned one of these futures, and each group runs through a series of questions that are designed to help them imagine these futures, such as:
- What are we eating for breakfast in the year 2040?
- What does your shopping list look like?
- Is it hard to shop ethically?
- How is energy produced?
- What jobs are there on offer in 2040?
- What behaviours would be considered outrageous in 2040?
We then review with the students about which of the two futures looks most enticing and in what ways they can become engaged today in bringing about this future.
Cost:
- $350 / session
4
Feedback begins collecting food waste from the school
School Program – All Ages
Launching the Feedback FoodCycle in the school through an engaging assembly presentation, each classroom is given a FoodCycle food waste bin and during the day children use these bins to store their food waste. At the end of each day students take their bin to a larger 120L outdoor receptacle for Feedback to collect and process locally on urban farms.
Ultimately, these food scraps are converted into delicious, farm-fresh food which is offered to students’ families as a subscription of fresh, locally grown, organic and sustainable food delivered directly to your door each week!
Costs:
- Set up fees: $250 + $15 per classroom
- Ongoing: $20 per week per 120L bin
5
Students retake the questionnaire
Online Activity – All Ages
The students retake the questionnaire to measure their shift in attitudes after participating and Feedback help them to observe the changes resulting from their experiences – from theoretical to hands-on.
