{"id":601018,"date":"2026-04-12T00:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/601018\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T00:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:08:15","slug":"how-a-primary-school-student-turned-excess-backyard-fruit-into-a-thriving-school-farmers-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/601018\/","title":{"rendered":"How a primary school student turned excess backyard fruit into a thriving school farmers’ market"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year 5 student’s simple observation about wasted fruit in her neighbour’s garden has sparked a thriving community movement at a Whitsundays school, and it’s helping families share fresh produce while teaching children valuable life and business skills.<\/p>\n

After watching an episode of ABC TV’s War on Waste last year, Georgia Turner began thinking about how much edible food was being thrown away from backyard gardens and local farms.<\/p>\n

And she didn’t have to look far for an example.<\/p>\n

“My neighbour’s mandarin tree had lots of mandarins,” Georgia said.<\/p>\n

“Even when they ate them all and gave some to us and their friends, there were still more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Most of them just got mouldy and fell on the ground.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Georgia Turner wanted to address food waste by setting up a farmers’ market at school. (ABC Rural: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

This sparked an idea and Georgia’s mum encouraged her to put a proposal to the Primary Campus deputy school principal, Samantha Hinton.<\/p>\n

“Mrs Hinton listened to my idea, and then I just hoped it could do something,” Georgia said.<\/p>\n

Food waste inspires vibrant market<\/p>\n

After Mrs Hinton gave the green light, Georgia’s concept grew quickly over the next few months.<\/p>\n

“I felt very happy and excited because my little idea has turned into a big thing,” Georgia said.<\/p>\n

What began as a plan to reduce food waste has evolved into a vibrant, fortnightly farmers’ market at St Catherine’s Catholic College, bringing together students, parents and the broader school community.<\/p>\n

Mrs Hinton said Market Day had become one of the most anticipated events on the school calendar.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a really nice way to start that day,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It really does have that market feel. We’re very proud of the kids and how they’re presenting themselves and their produce.”<\/p>\n

The markets are held every second Friday before school from 8am for half an hour, and are open to school students, staff and families at St Catherine’s.<\/p>\n

Products for sale include everything from fresh eggs and honey to baked goods, craft and seasonal fruit.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

St Catherine’s Catholic College deputy principal Samantha Hinton says the markets teach life and business skills.\u00a0 (ABC Rural: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

Beyond reducing waste, the markets have created additional educational benefits for students who must be part of every process of their produce gathering or making. Parental support is limited, aside from the set-up and pack-down of stalls on market day.<\/p>\n

Students are responsible for creating marketing material and displays for produce, pricing items accordingly. They also learn customer-service skills, from calculating change to speaking with customers about the products.<\/p>\n

“It certainly links to the curriculum on lots of levels \u2014 the maths, the literacy, \u2026 the sustainability,” Mrs Hinton said.<\/p>\n

“I think our next thing is to support parents to make sure that the kids are paying them back for different things that they’re doing. So, if they’re making biscuits, that they understand that part of that money goes into whatever it is that they needed to buy it.”<\/p>\n

Running stall builds confidence and skills<\/p>\n

Monica Falconer said she had seen clear changes in her daughters, Alice and Lucy, who run their own stall selling produce sourced from the family property.<\/p>\n

“As a parent, I’ve really enjoyed seeing my daughters’ people skills improve,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They’re maintaining eye contact, they use manners. Obviously, mathematics \u2014 calculating the change \u2014 but they show initiative too.”\"A<\/p>\n

Families can shop or sell at the farmers’ markets at St Catherine’s Catholic College in the Whitsundays.\u00a0 (ABC Rural: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

The preparation for Market Day has become a highlight for the siblings.<\/p>\n

“I love seeing their anticipation and excitement,” Ms Falconer said.<\/p>\n

“They’re organised to pack all the fruits, veggies and eggs and work out pricing. I just love how excited they get.”<\/p>\n

The markets have now been running for several months and are well underway for 2026.<\/p>\n

Georgia hopes other schools will consider doing something similar to make use of left over local produce.<\/p>\n

“You just need a supportive school and a teacher that will wake up early for markets,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year 5 student’s simple observation about wasted fruit in her neighbour’s garden has sparked a thriving community…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6634,64,63,99,31367,25980,22103,4694,54647,30024],"class_list":{"0":"post-601018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-farm","13":"tag-farmer","14":"tag-good-news","15":"tag-market","16":"tag-queensland-country-hour","17":"tag-student"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}