Paekakariki pupils lap up their soup

NOURISHING: Shona Jaunas gives Taliyah Farrell a cup of soup.

Free, hot, wholesome vegetable soup is proving popular at lunchtime with Paekakariki School pupils.

Ingredients for the soup, which is given to pupils every Thursday lunchtime, comes via the burgeoning school garden.

The garden provided a bumper crop during the summer months which led to discussions about what to do with the produce.

School PTA member as well as gardening club member Phoebe Taptiklis came up with the free soup idea and it instantly gained traction.

A school parent is rostered on each week to make and dispense the soup which contains all sorts of vegetables ranging from pumpkin, kumera, garlic, leek, silverbeet.

Tomatoes, which have been preserved from the summer months, are also added to the mix with a bit of salt and olive oil.

"It's a nice and nourishing way to sustain the school community," parent Rebecca Thompson told Kapiti News as she helped set up on a bitterly cold Thursday lunchtime.

"And the kids love it.

"Only on one occasion did we have enough left for seconds."

She said 15 to 18 litres of soup was made each week on average although it was about 30 litres when the editor was there.

Parents have a couple of recipes they can follow, one featuring roasted vegetables and the other where everything was grated.

Pupils, who are encouraged to bring their own cups and to rinse and wash the cups afterwards, also get a slice of toast which has been supplied free via a supermarket.

Parent Shona Jaunas, who was distributing cups of soup, said the soup was gluten and dairy free too.

"That's just to make sure it's available to everyone."

Pupil Taliyah Farrell, 11, said the soup was "good and burst with flavour".