Push for healthy school food pays off

Takiri Butler, Calli Turner and Kendra Reynolds from the Bay of Plenty Sevens in the Te Kura o Matapihi Primary School kitchen. Photo / Ruth Keber

Te Kura o Matapihi Primary School children were treated to a North African dish cooked by several of the women's Bay of Plenty Sevens team yesterday.

A healthy initiative, set up two years ago to reduce unhealthy foods, has been a success at the school with healthy lunch options being sold three days a week.

Sevens player Takiri Butler said when she was growing up she was given vegetables and fruit and was not allowed to leave the table before she had finished her food. Earlier this year the athlete started a radio show to promote easy, affordable, fun and healthy living options for families in the Bay of Plenty. "If you eat well early on you have more of a chance to be healthy later on in life." Bay of Plenty District Health Board health promoter Steve Cameron said he had been contacted by the school two years ago to help with the revamp of the menu which included pies and fizzy drinks.

All meals now sold at the school are home cooked.

Mr Cameron said he introduced a new dish every three months, such as yesterday's meal: Moroccan meatballs and rice with hummus and salsa.

"Seventy per cent of the dish is vegetables. It's about getting the children used to the different combinations of vegetables. When we first started we used to get vegetables coming back but now the plates come back clean."

Mr Cameron said the school had 40 to 50 orders per day.

Matapihi kaiawahuni Arahina Dickson said since the introduction of the new foods the children were able to concentrate more in class and were more active in the playground.