The workshops were based around using healthy food predominantly sourced from maara kai and included information around encouraging healthy kai options within the wider whānau.
Healthy Families has supported a number of kōhanga in the region to access the Te Puni Kokiri Maara Kai fund to either develop their own on-site maara or to expand their existing maara.
Creating on-site maara offers a learning and teaching opportunity for both kaiako and tamariki. It makes the conversations in relation to kai pai all the more relevant when kōhanga incorporate te ao Māori values and knowledge.
Since attending the workshops, the staff have been looking at how these healthy changes can be supported both in policy and practice.
In one kōhanga, tamariki are leading the charge for healthy lunchboxes, and this has created a shift away from the weekly Friday takeaways that had been a part of the culture for 20 years.
Kōhanga reo are distributing maara kai produce among whānau members, including the distribution of excess seedlings via small garden boxes to whānau members, fostering transferable knowledge and enabling tamariki to also have maara at home.
Whānau are also collecting seeds through the New World little garden promotion to contribute to the effort.
Understanding the wider impacts of healthy kai for tamariki is the beginning of systemic change in relation to health and wellbeing of our tamariki/mokopuna.
Creating a supportive environment where healthy kai is encouraged makes the healthy choice the easy choice. Linking the healthy kai learnings with traditional maara kai practices enables kōhanga reo the opportunity to reclaim traditional growing systems and pass on knowledge to future generations.
There is potential for intergenerational knowledge sharing that leads to sustainable healthy change within the wider whanau outside of the early childhood setting.
Following on from this work, Healthy Families - in conjunction with Whanganui Regional Health Network - have been able to deliver approximately 180 fruit trees supplied by Heritage Food Crops Research Trust to education settings, marae and community organisations across the Whanganui Rangitīkei Ruapehu region.
If, as a community, we can increase the accessibility of healthy kai and have a greater understanding of it's importance from both traditional health and holistic wellbeing perspectives, opportunities and solutions for creating healthy change across our wider kai system will become evident.
Healthy Families want to work with other stakeholders and other parts of the community to understand how we can activate communities to improve our food system leading to healthier environments.
■If you are interested in ways to make healthy change in your life, check out the Healthy Families Whanganui Rangitikei Ruapehu website and join the movement to create a culture where the healthy choice is the easy choice where we live, learn, work and play.
