At Rangeview Intermediate in Te Atatū South, students are cooking free meals for their classmates using ingredients donated by the local Woolworths. Alongside their teacher Niva Tamua, they run a free tuck shop, serving more than 100 peers.
Fair Food stepped in to help the school in 2023, when the tuck shop closed because many families couldn’t afford it. There was no government support for a school breakfast or lunch programme, and Rangeview were on the waitlist for KidsCan. Niva said that children were arriving at school without having eaten that morning. During morning tea, students would ask for food.
“If kids don’t eat then they aren’t settled,” she says.
Fair Food’s Conscious Kitchen began cooking for the school a couple times a week using produce donated by the nearby Te Atatū Woolworths. What started with 25-30 lunches grew to supporting close to 100 students.
We knew we needed a more sustainable solution, so a group of Rangeview student leaders came to Fair Food for a catering club, where they learnt how to bulk cook and make the most of vegetables and pantry staples.
Shanah, Fair Food’s Head Chef, said that before the programme many of the students hadn’t been in the kitchen space, but by the end, they were catering for groups of 100 people.
“Seeing the kids from start to finish, how empowered they became, was one of the highlights of my year,” says Shanah.
The teachers were amazed with how much progress the students made in their maths and leadership skills after 10 weeks at Fair Food. The hands-on learning made such a difference to their achievement that the school took notice and decided to adopt the programme year round.
With the support from Rangeview staff and kai parcels from Fair Food, the students now run their own free tuck shop, sharing the mahi and skills they had learnt with the rest of the school. Three classrooms, each with around 24 students, take turns cooking lunch to feed their peers. Using food from KidsCan alongside produce and pantry staples from Fair Food, the students bulk cook and adapt their meals to make sure there is something nutritious everyone can enjoy.
The students love making pizza, especially when it is cheesy, alongside garlic bread, banana shakes, nachos and butter chicken. When asked their favourite meal, the students all agreed:
“Everything.”
The food tech room has two long tables where the students eat and enjoy lunch, served in proper bowls with cutlery. It’s practical for serving hot food, and also helps uphold the mana of the kai.
Students at Rangeview work hard to make sure their classmates have something to eat, but there are still times when there isn’t enough lunch. Making sure every child is fed has an impact that reaches beyond the individual.
Professor Boyd Swinburn from Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, describes the impact:
“It’s like dropping a rock in the pond and getting all these ripples that go out from the child to their family, to the school to the community and the local food system,”
The need for food support is large. Rangeview students are giving their classmates the fuel to focus and learn, while cooking together builds their own confidence and skills for a generation of healthy eating.
