Healthy pies a winner
Making healthy pies to curb the spread of diabetes was a winning idea for a group of Forest View High School students.
Year 11 and 12 students put their heads together to come up with eight business ideas to present to judges over three-days when they took part in a three-day business course recently called Maibiz run by facilitator Mark Douglas.
Douglas said the students had to come up with a concept for a business involving healthy food and drink options that was locally based.
Each group was marked on four things, a business plan, how creative and innovative the ideas are, how well the group worked as a team, and how well things were presented in the expo.
‘‘At the end of the day it’s about learning in a different way outside of the classroom,’’ Douglas said. ‘‘It’s a chance for the students to be creative.’’ The winning group was UMA (United Moody Adolescence) who designed a healthier alternative of the average pie.
The concept was made when the group discovered the high number of people suffering from diabetes and the fact the 60 million pies were being consumed every year.
The students physically made mini pies to show it was possible, swapping pastry for potato and kumara, canola oil for vegetable oil and using unsalted butter and beef stock.
The students also decided they wanted to have a factory in Putaruru therefore keeping the business local. The cost for one of these pies was $4.50.
The students said they all worked well together as a team because they have the same goals, and that was to win.
They received gold medals and a certificate for their efforts.
Douglas said it is a different way of teaching students not only classroom education but life skills outside the classroom.
‘‘There are 20 programmes run throughout the country from Kaitaia to Christchurch,’’ he said. He said students learnt how to make a successful business and gathering important life skills
such as teamwork.