With the theme of Healthy foods = Healthy kids, the Cook Islands Chefs Association teamed up with their local high school Titikaveka College to promote just that!
Obesity in the Pacific Islands is a common sight, how we tackle the issue is an ongoing debate…we can always start with education and that’s what we did. We identified a school who could benefit and then we approached the Ministry of Agriculture to donate local vegetables, vegetables typically in season and took a healthy approach to preparation and service.
Vegetables were donated from the ministry of agriculture included Green Papaya, peppers, cucumbers, spring onions, carrots, aubergine etc. We decided to keep all the vegetables fresh with no cooking method applied highlighting the importance of fresh product full of natural nutrients and flavour.
We then had to decide what to make it in to bearing in mind that the kids here are used to pies & burgers.
Cook Islands Chefs decided that we would poach some Chicken until tender leaving it overnight in the flavoursome stock, we also bought some glass noodles and soaked this in to the masterstock before wrapping them up in tortilla wraps which were quickly grilled to soften.
We set up a stall at our local market in town where lots of kids frequent during lunch hours along with office workers etc. To promote this we advertised on local TV, newspaper & radio to highlight we were giving away fresh healthy food to all school kids for that day.
We basically sold half of it to adults who were interested in the kids product collecting a nominal $2 per wrap. We turned over $200 of which we will be donating that back to the School to be used for healthy eating initiatives and projects. A successful initiative for a worthy cause and target market.
