Focus on food vital for kids

 

The Kids Can Cook roadshow hit Wellsford and Kaiwaka primary schools last month under the guidance of chef Chris Fortune – and the whole school of 220 students got involved.

After 18 years of cook-ing around the world, Chris has headed back to school, literally. As past chairman of Farmers Markets NZ Inc., Chris knows all there is to know about food from the ground up and is taking his message to eager-to-learn youngsters.

“Tens of thousands of children have eaten healthy, easy to prepare, sustainable foods that have been made in front of them, from their own school gardens or local community,” he says. “During our classes everybody gets to try and taste the cooking we do together.”

Chris was impressed by Wellsford School’s great gardens and focus on fresh produce.

“We have some of the best food in New Zealand – kiwifruit, pavlova, kumara, manuka honey, whitebait, sea food, wild pork, and of course pineapple lumps.”

He has a simple edict: Communities + Con-nected = Smart. In the Kids Can Cook Kitchen, students learned to measure, mix, flip, chop, grate and cook. Then came the taste test. Can kids cook? Verdict:

Yes they can!

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