Food enthusiasts and families with healthy, tasty and affordable recipes have the opportunity to win in a competition that could see their meals included in a cookbook used to inspire the Ka Ora, Ka Ako School Lunch Programme in Hawke’s Bay.

The Ka Ora, Ka Ako Recipe Challenge has been launched by Nourishing Hawke’s Bay: He wairua tō te kai – a collaborative project between EIT and the University of Auckland, which aims to improve food environments for children in Hawke’s Bay.

The competition, which has prizes totalling more than $2,000, hopes to source healthy, nourishing  and cheap meals to be included in a recipe book that will be published and distributed to all schools participating in the Government’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako healthy school lunches programme. One lucky school will also get a visit from Ganesh Raj, co-host of the television show Eat Well For Less, who will help prepare lunch at that school.

In a promotional video for the competition, Ganesh calls on food enthusiasts who want to help their community and win a prize to enter the competition.

“We have all heard about kids in New Zealand who are missing out on food and going hungry, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made things worse. More than 20 million lunches have been served up as part of this programme.”

“One in five kids in New Zealand live in a household that regularly runs out of food. One in ten primary school students aren’t getting breakfast and for some kids the school lunch might be their only meal for the day,” he says.

Nourishing HB project manager, Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau, who works in EIT’s Research and Innovation Centre, says that food security is a big issue in Hawke’s Bay in particular and the aim of the project is to ensure that local children have access to healthy food.

“Many children rely on the school lunches, which is why we are looking for healthy, tasty and affordable options that the schools can use.”

“The competition is available to everyone, and we have extended the closing date to include the school holidays.”

All eligible recipes will be in with a chance of being included in the recipe book and will also go into the prize draw. The closing date is 5pm on 18 October.

Pippa says EIT is pleased to be collaborating with the University of Auckland on the Nourishing Hawke’s Bay initiative since early 2020.

“We’ve been through an important community engagement phase to set the priorities for the project, a large data collection exercise with results to be released shortly, and this recipe competition is now part of giving back to our community to ensure our kids are accessing the best kai possible,” she says.

EIT and the University of Auckland’s collaborative project, Nourishing Hawke’s Bay: He wairua tō te kai, is supported by the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and the Ministry of Education.