Liam McNally
St Anthony’s Primary School in Melton South hosted about 50 guests to celebrate the launch of their Flourish and Nourish program on Tuesday, March 28.
Community members including sponsors, parents and Melton councillors were given a student-led tour of the school and the different sites the program operates in, before a special assembly and ribbon-cutting, with lunch provided by the Flourish and Nourish Cafe.
The Flourish and Nourish program is delivered in partnership with CatholicCare Victoria and is built around three projects aimed at working with communities to discover opportunities to remove health and wellbeing barriers for children and young people who need support.
The projects include a Breakfast Club, which is providing breakfast and exercise opportunities twice a week to about 260 students, and Cafe project in which grade four students utilise cooking to work on literacy and numeracy, and then invite community members to dine in the cafe for a donation once a week.
The third project for the program is a community garden which is being set up with the help of the Bunnings, and will provide a space for the school’s Garden Club classes.
CatholicCare Victoria strategic projects manager Ruth Knight said she was “thrilled” with the work that has gone into the program so far.
“Melton is a fabulous community. It has got so many strengths, and to build a thriving community is about collaboration; people, organisations and the community working together, and this is an initiative that has all of those ingredients.”
St Anthony’s Wellbeing and community leader Lauri Plummer said the program helps students learn about real world experiences.
“It has been a wonderful journey watching the Cafe, the Breakfast Club and now the community garden come together under the umbrella of the Nourish and Flourish program and sharing that for our wider community to also see and enjoy,” she said.
