Maori find solutions to own food security problems
A new toolkit detailing and celebrating projects to improve food security for Maori is being launched by the Obesity
Action Coalition today.
Food Security Among Maori in Aotearoa – Part II is designed to give communities ideas about what they can do to improve their food security.
Food security exists when all whanau, at all times, are able to access enough safe and nutritious foods to live an
active and healthy life.
The toolkit was developed by Te Hotu Manawa Maori (THMM) an organisation that delivers by Maori for Maori health
services. THMM nutrition and physical activity manager, Leonie Matoe says while there is considerable disparity in the
levels of food security between Maori and non-Maori, there are a number of projects around the country which are helping
to lessen that disparity.
“Food security is not about personal choice alone. It is often the result of environmental factors such as the proximity
of the household to quality supermarkets and to fast food outlets.
“Many Maori live in socially deprived areas where it is difficult to access healthy food. But there are some wonderful
projects around the country that are making a demonstrable difference.
“These include kohanga growing their own fruit and vegetables, a kura planting feijoa trees as a windbreak, a marae
purchasing fruit wholesale and selling it on to whanau for no profit, and local health providers advocating for petrol
stations to sell fruit instead of having specials on unhealthy foods like chocolate bars.”
She says obesity and food insecurity are linked. “Research shows that households that are the least food-secure have people with the highest body mass
index. This is because foods high in fat and sugar are the cheaper option.”
Leone Matoe also says it is vital that solutions to issues of food security are found by Maori themselves.
“Maori need to develop solutions to our own food security problems, solutions that are based on a kaupapa Maori
approach. It is this approach that makes the projects in this toolkit successful.”
For more information contactLeone Matoe, 09 638 5803, 021555767.
For a hard copy of the report please contact:
Leigh Sturgiss
Director
Obesity Action Coalition
0274 591 664
BACKGROUND
Food Security among Maori in Aotearoa – Part II says food security exists when all whanau, at all times, are able to access enough safe and nutritious foods to live an active and healthy
life. In contrast, food insecurity exists when whanau are unable to access enough healthy food, experience hunger, consume less nutritious foods due to
limited options, experience anxiety due to difficulty in accessing nutritious food or rely on food relief.
Maori experience food insecurity to a greater degree than European and other New Zealanders. However, a number of
projects around the country to counter this are making a difference. Food Security Among Maori in Aotearoa – Part II has case studies of some of these projects.
Themes from the report
• Food security is made up of food supply – which includes price, quality, variety; and access to food – which depends
on things like financial resources, distance and transport to shops, storage facilities, time and mobility. These in
turn depend on factors like employment, education, housing and social inclusion.
• While all these factors contributing to food security can seem daunting there are several things that can be done at
local level, including advocacy.
• The projects highlighted in the toolkit include:
(i) Ninety-nine percent of kohanga reo in the Whanganui region participating in a project in which kohanga whanau grow
and provide for themselves healthy and nutritious kai.
(ii) A campaign for whanau to be allowed to take their own food into a swimming pool complex where the price of a
sandwich was $6.50 and food from home was banned.
(iii) In Wellington, a 15-fold increase, in less than a year, in the amount of fruit and vegetables sold under a
programme providing fruit and veg at wholesale prices to members of a marae who had been struggling to afford such food.
(iv) A programme which now has up to 100 families from the Maraenui community lining up to grow their own fruit and
vegetables.
(v) A project that has focussed on highlighting the number of alcohol, gambling and fast food outlets in areas of high
deprivation in Bay of Plenty.
It is with such small projects that big changes can come about, particularly when the projects are administered by Maori
themselves.
ENDS