Promoting environments that foster healthy eating

Strengthening community and reducing health inequities is one of the ways that Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health aims to improve the health and wellbeing of the people in our region. We do this by providing education, taking a system-based approach and advocating policies that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Specific work is focussed on actions and outcomes to create change in food, nutrition and physical activity environments and behaviours, such as increasing access to food (food security).

Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health staff work towards creating nutrition environments that foster and enable healthy eating, along with resources that support actions to reduce poor nutrition that may result in chronic disease. The key messages for a healthy lifestyle include:

• Eat a variety of nutritious foods.
• Eat more vegetables and fruits.
• Eat less processed foods that are often fatty, salty, and sugary.
• Exclusively breastfeed infants for six months where possible, and introduce complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for at least one year and beyond.
• Be active every day for at least 30 minutes in as many ways as possible.
• Add some vigorous exercise and resistance for extra benefit and fitness.
• Aim to maintain a healthy weight throughout life.
• Promote and foster the development of environments that support healthy lifestyles.

Promoting nutrition in education and community settings

Promote nutrition in community and education settings has a direct impact on the health and motivation of those involved, including staff, and children or students.

Current work by Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health staff includes:

• supporting schools’ edible gardens and orchards;
• helping schools to develop nutrition policies around canteens, lunches and fundraising;
• assisting schools to become Water Only Schools;
• resourcing kaiako in early childhood settings around oral health issues such as tooth-friendly kai and drinks;
• encouraging early childhood settings to be breastfeeding friendly;
• supporting tertiary institutions to develop nutrition policies;
• supporting community groups with nutrition resources;
• working collaboratively to build a strong and resilient food system and increasing food security for Cantabrians; and
• providing expertise to help community organisations and councils develop and apply healthy food and beverage policies.

• Find out more about Health Promoting Schools work by Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health.
• Learn about the Love Kai programme for Canterbury education settings.
• Read the latest Healthy Nibbles information sheet.
• Download or order nutrition resources from the Community Health Information Centre.

Helping to create healthier workplaces

Current initiatives in workplaces are focussed on assisting workplaces in the development of wellness programmes.
There is growing evidence that comprehensive workplace health promotion programs are cost effective and improve employee health. Identified benefits include increased employee satisfaction and retention, and decreased absenteeism and injuries on the job.

Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health has developed a framework that is flexible and easily adapted to suit the needs of an organisation. The framework consists of a step-by-step process with several different elements to create a tailored health promotion programme. This approach has been shown to increase morale in the workplace as employees work together to meet the challenges of adopting a healthy lifestyle.

• Healthy Food and Drink Guidance for Organisations (Ministry of Health 2020).

Working to improve food resilience in Christchurch and Canterbury

Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health has an advisory role with the Food Resilience Network (FRN). The Network is the home of Edible Canterbury – a movement advocating for healthy and strengthened communities by:

• supporting existing local food producers;
• encouraging and educating for more locally grown food; and
• fostering relationships with key players in the food system to build a healthy resilient Canterbury.

A key project for the Food Resilience Network is the development of Ōtākaro Orchard. This will be a highly accessible, engaging, and unique orchard and garden in central Christchurch. The completed space will show sustainable and organic food systems in practice and build on its history as a place to gather mahinga kai.

• Download the Christchurch Food Resilience Network Action Plan (Christchurch City Council).

Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health is also a signatory to the Edible Canterbury Charter.

Documents

• Towards understanding the role of kai in the complex lives of whānau (Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu 2023).
• Adults’ Dietary Habits: Findings from the 2018/19 and 2019/20 New Zealand Health Survey (Ministry of Health 2022).
• Children’s Dietary Habits:  Findings from the 2018/19 and 2019/20 New Zealand Health Survey (Ministry of Health 2022).
• The Economic and Social Cost Of Type 2 Diabetes (Diabetes New Zealand 2021). Executive summary also available.
• Mana to Mana: Principles of ‘Mana to Mana’ Practice in Community Food Distribution (Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective 2021).

• Food Hardship and Early Childhood Nutrition: Findings from Growing Up in NZ with a focus on food hardship among tamariki Māori and Pacific children (University of Auckland, University of Otago and Ministry of Social Development 2020).
• Changes to New Zealanders’ grocery shopping, cooking and eating during the COVID-19 lockdown (Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 2020).
• Eating and Activity Guidelines for New Zealand Adults (Ministry of Health 2020).
• Aotearoa, the land of the long wide bare cupboard/ Food insecurity in New Zealand (Child Poverty Action Group 2019) – a series of reports.
• Household Food Insecurity among Children: New Zealand Health Survey (Ministry of Health 2019).

• Children and Young People Living Well and Staying Well: New Zealand Childhood Obesity Programme Baseline Report 2016/17 (Ministry of Health).
• How We Eat: Reviews of the evidence on food and eating behaviours related to diet and body size (Ministry of Health 2017).
• Healthy Food and Drink Guidance for Organisations (Ministry of Health 2016).
• Guidelines for School Food Programmes (Te Kete Ipurangi – Ministry of Education 2014).
• University of Otago Food Cost Survey.

Links

• Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand.
• Healthy Kids.
• Health Promotion Agency.
• Breastfeeding (Ministry of Health).
• La Leche League.
• Puāwai-Kai – replaces Appetite for Life and Senior Chef.
• Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
• Edible Canterbury.

Feeding your family for less or on a budget

Community and Public Health staff are also interested in addressing issues around access and availability of affordable food (food security). This involves working with disadvantaged groups such as those on low incomes and those living alone (especially men). If you are finding it hard to make your food budget stretch, then try one of the following menu plans for some new ideas.

• Download the Family Budget Cooking Menu Plan to feed a family for $145 per week [420KB] – updated June 2017.
• Download the Single Person Budget Cooking Menu Plan [330KB] – updated June 2017.
• Order a seasonal recipe book from the Community Health Information Centre.

The Heart Foundation also produces two cookbooks of nutritious recipes on a budget:

• Cheap Eats; and
• Affordable Eats.

Join the Fruit and Vegetable Co-op in greater Christchurch

The Fruit and Vegetable Co-op is now called Foodtogether. It operates as a stand-alone social enterprise in Christchurch and North Canterbury, and is supported by the Healthy Life Trust.

There are also other fruit and vegetable co-operatives in Christchurch such as the:

• Canterbury Fruit and Vegetable Co-op (Facebook); and
• Christchurch South Fruit and Vegetable Collective.