News And Events

Celebrating Culture Through Food

Spring is on its way, and this time of year presents us with many opportunities to venture outside to enjoy the natural environment.  It’s a great time to start thinking about planting a summer vegetable garden so that you and your whānau can enjoy the fresh produce over coming months.

Throughout September, Nurtured at Home will be providing all Homebased Educators with a packet of bean seeds as this month’s resource, including a plant diary to document the process with children.  Many of our Homebased Educators have a producing vegetable garden, and our tamariki can be involved in the preparation, planting, nurturing, and cultivating process.  As bean seeds are quick and easy to grow, children can watch the process unfold over a few weeks as the seed grows.

We can support children to learn about the natural environment and how it produces food for us if we take care and nurture it.  By being actively involved in the process of germinating, planting, nurturing, and harvesting food, children gain a sense of belonging and learn about the importance of taking care of their natural environment - kaitiakitanga.  This process is embedded within many different cultures celebrating the diverse range of food around the world.  Time then spent celebrating together and enjoying fresh home-grown food encourages children to think about where food comes from, how we can nurture our environment, how we nourish our bodies so that we may be healthy and physically active, and how food brings people together as they share meals.