A local iwi is making mealtimes a positive experience for tamariki while encouraging them to try new things, and last week the Tasman Mako jumped on board.
Ngāti Rārua project coordinator Weenie Tākao, along with her team, have been providing more than 400 school lunches to children at joined Te Kura Kaupapa Māori O Tuia Te Matangi, Victory Primary School and Maitai School since the beginning of the year.
The project is funded through the Ministry of Education Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches Programme and must fit within nutritional guidelines.
Weenie says the project has been a massive undertaking but one that has been very rewarding for her and her team.
Weenie says a lot of planning goes into hitting nutritional marks while sitting within the budget.
Lunches so far have included Vietnamese pork noodle salad, pasta salad, chicken drumsticks and couscous salad.
“Geoff always says it’s positive peer pressure, everyone’s eating the same so when they see someone else trying it, they will try it,” Weenie says.
Food waste comes back to the team so they can gauge what meals have been popular.
“If we are at six buckets a week, we are good, if it’s more then we’ll look and figure out what’s not been liked.”
“We notice when we give them sandwiches, they are not so keen.”
Based at the Nelson Rugby Clubrooms, who Weenie can’t speak highly enough of, she noticed the Mako training regularly at their home turf next door.
So, the idea was born that the tamariki might enjoy having their lunch delivered by the rugby stars. Late last month Mako players joined Geoff the chef and Micah Kahaialii delivering the lunches to the schools.
“It was an idea to encourage them, you get these little rewards when you’re eating your kai.”
Weenie says they really try and work with the schools and children around individualising meals for the week.
“For example, Victory had cultural diversity week so the school came up with some ideas for meals that would represent different cultures.”
During Matariki, another special menu was created for the week.
“We used kai from the ground, from the trees, from the sea and we gave tamariki pamphlets to explain what the food was inspired by,” Weenie says.
Feedback on the lunches from parents are that the kids are often more adventurous at home, or that they get grief for not making things “the way Geoff does”.
“We try and give them a new ingredient every week that they probably haven’t tried before, last week that was feta.”
Geoff says 50 per cent of their budget is allocated to food cost.
“We are looking at $2.50 - $2.70 per child per meal,” he says.
He has noticed protein costs have increased since they set the budget at the start of the year.
Geoff buys all the ingredients fresh every day, with the exception of chicken which is cooked the day before. He says the children build a great relationship with them, delivering the food themselves every day.
“Even at the dairy on a Saturday I hear ‘Oh, Geoff the chef’.”
Following 28 years in corporate environments as a chef, Geoff retired, but this gave him a reason to get back into it.
“It just permeates so many more things than just a mealtime, it’s so positive.”
