Healthy eating on a budget

Grouping food pictures from magazines into 'the good, bad and the ugly' was one successful approach used by Te Puawaitanga o Otangarei Healthcare Centre's healthy lifestyle course.

The Whangarei-based centre ran a ten-week 'cooking healthy on a budget' programme, covering topics such as food preparation and hygiene, cooking on a shoestring, understanding food labels and 'quick n light' meals. The course was part of a broader healthy eating, healthy action programme that includes a community garden, as well as working with the school, marae and retailers.

Facilitator Miriama Reihana says the course was aimed at the Otangarei community, which has a high population of Māori and Pacific peoples. The Manaia Health PHO helped plan the project, the PHO dietitian provided advice and Feeding our Futures provided funding support.

Miriama says 11 people took part in the programme, including single parents, elderly people and people from large families. As a result of the course, Miriama says three participants are now exercising and other participants have stopped smoking and have made changes along the road to healthy eating.

"The course gave people the confidence to explore what they provide at home, food pricing and the variety of food that's available."

Most effective parts of the programme:

• Getting participants to cut food pictures out of magazines and look at the nutritional value of the foods. Participants also learnt how to budget and read food labels.
• Identifying colours in food groups such as vegetables.
• Teaching participants how to read food labels at the supermarket.
• Budgeting.
• Microwave demonstrations where people learnt how to use microwaves to quickly make low-cost meals.
• Group discussions to find out what changes were happening in the home.
• $15.00 challenge, where participants had to make a meal for three people.
• Use of the Te Hotu Manawa Māori Food Charts where students used and filled the fats and sugars plastic bags up for themselves.
• A story about how Māori collected kai on the land and sea and a comparison with today's food, availability and pricing. Miriama says this was a popular part of the course where participants split into groups to discuss the issues.

What would Te Puawaitanga o Otangarei Healthcare Centre do differently next time?

• The Centre would like to use the same programme for a one-on-one model.
• Offer the same programme on different days of the week to cut down on absenteeism.

The $15 challenge prepared by the Centre - The Great $15 Food Challenge Assignment

Challenge rules:
Your challenge is to prepare and present a healthy meal/s to the value of $15.00 exactly. It may be a three course menu, but make it simple, basic and preferably for a whanau.

Your challenge is to have all your documentation included:

• Docket/receipt of purchase for all food to be used in presentation to the value of $15.
• Food labels where possible.
• In your own words why 'your meal is healthy'.
• Does it have the 'colour factors'?
• Was your meal easy to prepare? How long did it take?
• Please make sure hygiene is a big factor throughout the preparation of your meal.

Have fun with your whānau/family members. Remember it is about sharing, preparing and enjoying your meals as a family.