Rawene School has been working together with whanau and students to create ‘Winter Soup Wednesday’.

Created by staff as a way to promote healthy eating in their school, Winter Soup Wednesdays have seen many different soups available plus the added bonus of giving the students and staff a healthy hot meal while the colder temperatures set in.

Senior management called on whanau to assist by donating whatever spare vegetables or meat they had available at their homes so the full cost was not just on the school budget.

Staff and whanau members are then rostered on to support with cooking and organising getting the hot soup ready for school lunchtime. Senior students also get the chance to help with the making of the soup as well as distribution as part of the school leadership goals.

“The school aims to keep this going through into term three as well and with the good support from various whanau I’m sure it will carry on” says Principal Karena Tamehana.

There is no real cost other than the donations from those that are interested and the time from those able to help and that was the aim in the first place to give the students a hot meal in the winter months.

Sport Northland through its Energize programme is supporting Rawene with the overall aim to meet the school needs to help them to improve their children’s physical activity and nutrition, and ultimately to improve overall health - therefore the programme is different as its tailored to each individual school.