Aim High, Strive for Excellence: How Manurewa High School Provides 2000 Meals to Hungry Students.
Manurewa High School has been fortunate to be included in the Ministry of Education School Lunch Programme for 2021. The Board of Trustees opted to make the lunches ‘in house’ as the school currently has a commercial kitchen where its year 12 and year 13 students are trained in Hospitality and Catering. These students help with the programme along with nine new staff members and three teacher / chefs. The classroom has been transformed into a food preparation room, with the commercial kitchen being upgraded with four new commercial ovens.
Vario cooking centres & Blast chiller
“We assembled a team of three, me – brought in as a consultant to assist in the start-up of the lunch programme, Sara Blackburn – one of our Hospitality and Catering Teachers to guide our Year 13 hospitality students and Borin Kim – a Food Technology Teacher turned Head Chef for the programme,” explained Board of Trustees Chair, Stephen Smith.
With the assistance of Julie Lockie, School Business Manager, it took a combined effort to convert the school’s previous teaching space into a prep kitchen and prepare the production kitchen for the two thousand meals it would need to produce daily.
“Every one of us brought something different to the lunch programme and through a collaborative approach, menus were written, suppliers sourced and eventually, food prepared. It has been a very eventful journey and a great learning process for everyone involved, we have successfully provided healthy, nutritious meals to our students daily, which we will continue to do with our school vision of “Piki Atu Ki Te Rangi” - Aim High, Strive for Excellence.”
When the idea of the lunch programme was proposed to the school, Principal Pete Jones and Stephen Smith approached the board members with the possibility of making lunches in-house, creating a variety of opportunities. A significant opportunity was the school’s ability to provide its Year 13 hospitality students with real work experience in a commercial-style kitchen. Creating a team has created the opportunity to design the meals and control the food cost to ensure a high-quality meal is maintained throughout the year.
The school has a commercial kitchen on site along with a newly converted prep kitchen used for its hospitality students.
“After considerable consultation with suppliers and teaching staff, we invested in two RATIONAL combi ovens, a third oven currently on order, two Vario CookingCentres, two blast chillers, Cambro hot boxes, along with a mountain of small equipment needed to produce the two thousand meals a day.”
Manurewa High School uses several suppliers to create its meals, from off-the-shelf to bespoke products made to the school’s specifications that meet the nutritional requirements set by the Ministry of Education. There major kitchen equipment was supplied by Burns & Ferrall.
“Through my thirty-two years in inflight catering, I have built a great rapport with many suppliers who have come on board and assisted the school in implementing our school lunch programme,” noted Smith.
Through a collaborative approach with catering staff and students, the school designs its menus and meal ideas per term.
“We also survey our students once a term for their feedback. We have branched out to social media to further connect with our students on both Facebook @ManurewaHighSchool and Instagram @mhs_lunches, for anyone who wishes to follow our journey. We post up our weekly menu for students to see and we receive feedback on the meals through messages on our social media posts.”
Each day at Manurewa High School, in an assigned time, referred to as Kaitiaki, two students are appointed from each class to pick up the required lunches from the canteen and return to class to share out the food in time for lunch.
All packaging is compostable, sourcing from environmentally conscious companies that have worked in partnership with the lunch programme, ensuring the food is sustainably packaged. Manurewa High is working in close partnership with Ecoware and Allen Paper.
“We reached out to Allen Paper to design our own food wraps as a way to support the whanaungatanga between our school and lunches.”
Waste management is an important aspect of the school lunch programme, the Ministry of Education recommends both schools and suppliers use recyclable and compostable packaging and minimise waste where possible. Manurewa works with Green Gorilla to ensure all food and packaging waste is commercially composted.
“Once meal service has been completed, we offer excess meals to students who wish to have another meal and any leftover after that fact is returned to the production kitchen. At the end of the production day, any leftovers are donated to various areas such as school-based families that are in need via our Youth Workers and locally to community outreach groups such as Waka for Caring and Manurewa Marae. All wastage is recorded by the school to show every effort is made to keep wastage and excess meals at a minimum.”
Smith’s advice to potential suppliers wishing to get involved in Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches Programme is to get out there to schools and see how what you can do for and with them to provide the best for New Zealand’s tamariki.
“As Principal of Manurewa High School, the development and execution of the school lunch programme that Steve and his team have achieved is amazing and beyond our expectations,” expressed Pete Jones.
“The team make and feed a school of 2170 students with healthy nutritious kai every day of the school week. We are in the great position to be able to say that no student will ever be hungry when they are at school. This helps put students in a great space to engage with their learning and not be worrying about being hungry, resulting in increased student focus in the classroom.”
Rationale's heating meals for lunch
The lunch programme has enabled the school to employ eight people from within the community who have quickly became part of Manurewa’s kura community.
“Each and every member of the team is appreciated for their mahi, input and embracing the programme ethos as it evolves,” continued Jones.
“We have received such positive feedback and messages of thanks from our parent community. I am so proud of the success of our school lunch programme – the team have achieved so much in the five months of operation and I see even better things to come from the detailed planning for the remainder of the year.”
Hellen Seuula, Manurewa High School Head Girl expressed that the free lunch programme has been a blessing. The healthy lunches mean that she doesn’t have to worry about missing her recommended 5+ a day fruit and vegetables.
“The free lunches have fed hungry kids like me,” said Seuula. “It has helped me focus more on school and reduce my stomach from rumbling.”
Another positive note for Seuula is the green Gorilla bins that have been provided around the kura.
“Because our lunches are provided in Ecoware packaging, it helps educate our students about how to compost properly, to be sustainable and to be environmentally aware. Thank you to our Free Lunch Team!”
Beitor Li, Manurewa High School Head Boy noted that the programme would not be possible without the team and the hospitality and catering students.
“Our students have given extremely positive feedback to maintain the delectable flavours as well as the nutritional values that each meal rotation provides,” he said.
“This aspect integrates incredibly with our school culture as it is based on wellbeing and helps the team understand what flavours stand out in our school body. It reinforces the concept of ‘full stomachs, healthy mind’. Overall, it is such a privilege to have a special Free Lunch Programme at our school that is freshly made daily. 谢谢! (thank you!)”
