Image Credit: BCAA

By Doyle Potenteau / Global News

BCAA Play Now

Shuswap elementary school wins $30K to upgrade kitchen

Jul 4, 2019 | 4:20 PM

An elementary school in the Shuswap will have $30,000 to upgrade its kitchen after earning a runner-up spot in BCAA’s Play Here contest.

Three winners from across the province were awarded $100,000 each this week to update a play space.

Two winners were from Vancouver Island (a school playground and a community playground) while the third was from the South Okanagan (a skate park in Oliver).

Earning the first runner-up spot was South Canoe Elementary in Salmon Arm. The school will use the $30,000 on upgrading its kitchen.

According to BCAA, “play spaces can be more than just playgrounds — it could a community garden, outdoor classroom, basketball court, youth program facility or even a music room.

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“If it’s a place to play, gather and learn, we want to know how it can be improved and how it will impact your community.”

In making its contest submission, the school said “many challenges to the space have been identified including insufficient cooking and cleaning appliances for large-scale cooking.”

The school went on to say that cooking helps build healthy students, and stated “an expanding body of research shows that involving children in food preparation can increase their fruit and vegetable intake.

“Cooking engages children’s curiosity in eating and helps them gain the skills and self-confidence needed to prepare healthy food. Building safe and effective cooking infrastructure into the school will allow generations of children to become engaged eaters and learn about healthy eating at school.”

The school added “revitalizing our kitchen will allow us to continue growing our current food programming and work towards our long-term goal of having a garden-to-table school-wide lunch program for students.

“In this journey, there will be opportunity to connect with local farmers, food producers, non-profits, community members and chefs. The kitchen will provide opportunity for local community groups and non-profits to run community kitchens, canning workshops or after school programs.

“It will expand our capacity to have community potlucks. Finally, small-scale food producers will be able to use the space to produce food for the community.”