Love the earth through Environmental Protection and Vegetarianism
Teachers with loving heart plough the Field of Blessing
On 23 rd August 2012, 24 volunteer workers of Tzu Chi Foundation Gold Coast left the premises at 7:30 am to go to Brassall High School at Ipswich to demonstrate and advocate vegetarian cooking for the love of the Earth. This is the third time to publicize such an activity in the school compound since 2011. Teachers teaching cooking in 18 schools of Ipswich and its neighbouring suburbs came to attend this function. Having learned from previous experiences, each group of Tzu Chi volunteers knew exactly how to proceed. As soon as they entered the school premises, each group started to work right away, some going into the Environmental Protection Classroom, others into the Cooking Classroom and the Tea Room. Each volunteer had an assigned duty, such as chopping up veggies, kneading the dough etc. The Environmental Protection Classroom was decorated like a DA AI TECH exhibition room. There was a fashion show of garments and fabrics made from recycled material. Some of the fashion-models were only doing it for the first time and they rehearsed without delay under the guidance of other volunteer workers.
As 
soon as the teachers from the 18 schools entered the Cooking Classroom they were greeted. with a ‘welcome song’ by the volunteer workers. The first cooking demonstration was‘ fried rice using fruits.’. Although all audiences were expert cooks it is inevitable that the demonstrators were a bit nervous, yet they remained focused and calm as usual, abiding by the principle that ‘concentration is professional’. The fried rice, garnished with strawberries, was very tantalizing, and had won a round of applause by the teachers. The next item was making pancakes. The volunteer interpreter gave a very lively explanation which captured everyone’s attention and created a very pleasant and enjoyable atmosphere. At the same time, a teacher put her hand up to invite Tzu Chi to go to her school to teach vegetarian cooking.Professional teachers are indeed proficient that three teachers tried their hands at making the pancakes, and within a short while they were able to have the pastry done. One of them, Firoza Teevaji, from India, was very keen and interested in doing it because it reminded her of the Indian pastry.
Brassall School teacher, Kate, who coordinated this event, had been in contact with Tzu Chi twice. She was very impressed by the way things were being organized and the team spirit of Tzu Chi volunteers who work so closely together like a big family. She also had the intention to pass on the concept of Environmental Protection. She felt that this cooking event in bringing together teachers from 18 schools opened up an opportunity for all to make an effort to promote environmental protection and vegetarianism for the love of our Earth.
Kate had never thought of the fact that recycled plastic bottles could be used to make into so many kinds of ingenious products, for she would just trash them away after drinking. Having seen by herself the recycled materials produced by DA AI TECH, she could now understand what Tzu Chi members said about "turning garbage into gold and gold into love".
Tina, who was in charge of beverage, at Brassall High School expressed her gratitude to Tzu Chi for introducing environmental protection and Tzu Chi Humanities education into the school. She cordially invited Tzu Chi volunteers to pick a day to go to the school and let the students cook some vegetarian food as a return treat.
Videos and shocking statistics on global warming have prompted the propagation of environmental protection in the hope of awakening people to take good care of our environment and to stop killing. Teachers were amazed to see in the videos how Tzu Chi volunteer workers manufactured clothing and hats etc from plastic bottles.
Seeing the lovable volunteer workers play the role of fashion-models to showcase the recycled products, teachers exclaimed in admiration and could not wait to go to examine the fabrics for themselves.
Finally, 4 schools out of 18, requested Tzu Chi to go to their schools to teach vegetarian cooking. They felt that we should start teaching the concepts of vegetarianism, environmental protection and love of our Earthin schools and from there into the society so that people will join together to cherish and care for our Earth.
