♫ Game show music ♫
Welcome to... [male host voice] 'What's On Youuuurrrr Plate?'
Contestants, can you name where these foods come from?
[clock ticking]
How about where these fruits and veggies grow?
[clock ticking]
If you found some of those a bit tricky, you're not alone!
A new survey has found that quite a few Aussie kids are confused about how their food starts
out! It quizzed more than a thousand primary school kids on their fresh food knowledge.
Most kids thought it was pretty obvious that eggs come from a hen, and milk comes from
a cow. But around one out of four kids didn't know that cow's milk is also used to make
butter and cheese, and almost one out of three didn't know that tomatoes grow on vines.
The results didn't get better when it came to cooking skills. Many parents thought their
kids wouldn't know how to bake a potato or boil an egg.
Experts say these results aren't good, because kids could be getting into bad habits early
on. They reckon people who understand their food and where it comes from are more likely
to make healthy eating choices like picking a fresh option over a packaged one.
That's why, at some schools, kids are getting a head-start in the kitchen and the garden!
[Reporter] Tell me about all the plants you're growing... what's happening here?
So here we've got beetroot growing and we've got some eggplant as well, over there.
That's massive, it's growing well!
Yeah it is.
Kitchen Garden programs like this one teach kids how to grow and harvest their own food.
[KID] So we have to buy the seeds and then we have to get the dirt and then we plant
them and we have to water them.
Everything they grow here ends up here! Where they learn to prepare their produce in all
sorts of ways. These kids say it's lots of fun and they're learning skills that'll help
them stay healthy now and in the future.
I reckon for me, it's the cooking. I like chopping up all the food and making
it into salads.
[GIRL] I think it helps kids to eat healthy 'cause it's like from the garden and it's fun.
[REPORTER] And when it comes to what's on their plate; these guys know the answers.
[GIRL] Most people, when they see an apple, they'll just eat it, but we know that it's
been grown in an orchard and it's gone through a seed to an apple on a tree.
I think it's made me appreciate more fresh foods from the garden because we put
a lot of work into all the food that comes from the garden.
[REPORTER] Plus, they're trying things they never tried before!
[BOY LEFT] Eggplant. [BOY RIGHT] Sushi.
I never liked carrot, but when I started planting I just kind of fell in love with
carrots!