Food hearty but healthy

It was a full-on, fresh and fruity feeding frenzy at Porirua College last Thursday, as cookery students gave away free healthy food in a lunchtime competition.

Six groups of year 9 and 10 food technology students spent this term devising recipes to add to their canteen menu. The dish must be healthy, look and taste good, and cost between $2 and $3 a portion. Students had to weigh and measure ingredients, tally costs and portion sizes, and meet with canteen staff to ensure they had the equipment to produce the dishes.

Last week the proof of the project was in the tasting, when dozens of hungry students voted with their tastebuds. Students completed feedback forms on four dishes – lasagne, fried rice, pizza and ice blocks – and the most popular will be sold at the canteen in 2013.

Pizza chef David Iosua, 15, was confident his dish would win the most votes.

‘‘We were the first to be sold out,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve done the best we can to make it healthy,

less meat and adding cheese.’’

Anzac Sheck, 14, was equally proud of her lasagne dish. ‘‘We did it with love. Everything is measured out properly.’’

The canteen project was devised by the Heart Foundation and Regional Public Health as a way to get students eating and cooking healthy food, said the Heart Foundation’s Sian Bliss.

A survey of 120 students at the school revealed students were interested in healthy food but they did not want to pay more than $3, she said.

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